Once a Mouse... - Marcia Brown

Once a Mouse... by Marcia Brown / ISBN 9780684126623 / 32-page hardback, 9 x 9.5 inches, published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers (recent printing of a book published in 1961)

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Marcia Brown retells an Indian fable from the Hitopadesa in this Caldecott Medal–winning tale of a mouse who becomes a tiger.

When a small mouse’s life is threatened by large jungle predators, a kindly hermit uses magic to change him into a cat, a dog, and a majestic tiger. But the proud tiger must suffer the consequences when he becomes ungrateful and forgets his humble origins. Marcia Brown’s magical woodcuts bring this Indian fable to life with the mastery that won her a second Caldecott Medal.

Marcia Brown (1918–2015), one of the most honored illustrators in children’s literature, was a three-time Caldecott Medalist and six-time Caldecott Honor illustrator, as well as winner of the Children’s Literature Legacy Award (formerly known as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award) for the body of her work. She lived in Laguna Hills, California.