*Thelonious Mouse by Orel Protopopescu (2011) is a joyful story for the very young music lover. Thelonious Mouse “had too much music in him to stuff into a mousehole. He had to let it out.” This mouse tap-dances and prances. He claps and slaps the walls in a home of a cat. While his parents and siblings shake at the prospect of waking the sleeping feline, Thelonious skitters and twitters on a table singing “Nibblety dribblety cheeit! Icky ticky old fleabit!” Fat cat chases Thelonious more than once in this story. When Thelonious discovers a tiny, toy piano, he doesn’t hear the cat coming. All he hears is the sound of the piano keys. “A click-a-keys, a lick-a-cheese, a jingling, tingling sends me in a swoon.” And yet, his musical genius saves the day, and the future. This is a brilliantly written story illustrated by Anne Wisdorf .
