Kevin Henkes has been writing and illustrating for children ever since he was almost a child himself: he won his first New York contract when he was only nineteen. He is equally at home in the world of middle-grade and young adult novels as he is in that of picture books for preschool and primary graders. In these picture books, he has created an endearing cast of mouse characters, including Wendell, Sheila Rae, Lilly, Chester, Wemberly, Chrysanthemum, Julius, and Owen, all of whom are referred to by Alice Cary of BookPage as the "Henkes Mousedom." Doug Ward noted in the New York Times Book Review that "Kevin Henkes has a way with mice. He makes them human." Henkes's fiction and picture books for young readers have been praised by many critics for their light-hearted, yet sensitive portrayal of the common occurrences in young children's lives. In her review...