Mahalia Mouse Goes to College: Book and CD

by John Lithgow, Igor Oleynikov (Illustrator)

Mahalia Mouse and her family live underneath Dunster House, an old Harvard dormitory. Foraging for food for her younger brothers and sisters, Mahalia gets trapped in a backpack and then finds herself inside a classroom far from home. Mahalia, intrigued by the lecture, starts attending classes and soon becomes a full-time student -- all the while wondering about the fate of her family. But when graduation day finally arrives, Mahalia has a wonderful surprise waiting for her.

Written as part of his keynote address at Harvard's commencement, this latest book from John Lithgow (class of '67) incorporates his trademark witty rhymes and includes a CD of him reading the text at the commencement. Mahalia's story has an inspiring message for graduates or anyone whose success is worthy of celebration.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, School, Education, Animals

40 pages, Hardcover

First published March 27, 2007

About the author

John Lithgow is a prolific actor with two Tonys, six Emmys, two Golden Globes, and two Oscar nominations to his name. He has starred in the hit TV series 3rd Rock from the Sun, Dexter, and The Crown, and in beloved films like The World According to Garp, Shrek, and Terms of Endearment. Lithgow has appeared on Broadway twenty-five times and in England with both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. He is also the bestselling author of nine children’s picture books, and his recordings for kids have landed him four Grammy nominations.

Reviews

[Lucy Hall]

Title: Mahalia Mouse Goes to College
Author: Lithgow, John
Illustrator: (Oleynikov, Igor)
Genre: Online Book
Theme(s): education, adventure, success.
Opening line/sentence: (The skies of September were bursting with rain, pelting the old dormitory. It filled every gutter and choked every drain. Chapter 1 of Mahalia's story.)
Brief Book Summary: (The story of a mouse forced to leave her family to seek for help for her sick mother. She finds something more valuable than food or money: an education. She goes through challenges before she reaches her goal.)
Professional Recommendation/Review #1: (“John Lithgow delivers an absolutely charming tale in verse for young readers with the story of a young mouse who accidentally becomes a college student." From School Library Journal Grade 3 Up–This sophisticated story is part of Lithgow's commencement speech to Harvard's class of 2005. Rhyming verses introduce Mahalia, a mouse who leaves her impoverished family behind to search for food. She finds herself interested in a science course after accidentally ending up in a Harvard classroom in a student's backpack. Her diligence and intelligence win the professor's support, and she goes on to complete four years of study. She graduates, thus ending this story of stout self-reliance;/An epic account on a miniature scale/Of a mouse who set forth on life's bumpy trail/And succeeded by simply refusing to fail. Children can appreciate the tiny protagonist's persistence, but some concepts like professors, lab fees, and lectures will need to be explained. The art is rendered in gouache then digitally treated, resulting in a dark, at times somber, palette. The illustrations are exuberant whether depicting the joy on graduates' faces or their horror at spotting a mouse in their lecture hall. The accompanying CD is a live recording of the story from the commencement ceremony, and it is a joy to listen to Lithgow's musical cadence and hear the audience's reactions to this presentation.–Linda M. Kenton, San Rafael Public Library, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist After young Mahalia Mouse, who lives under an old Harvard dormitory, is sent to search for food for her family, she finds herself trapped in a student's dark backpack. She escapes when he unzips his bag in a classroom, but she becomes entranced by the professor's lecture on atoms in space and stays to take notes. The students panic when they spot her, but the professor sees Mahalia's potential ("This mouse is a genius!"), and he makes her stay at school for four glorious years to get her degree. The original audience for this story was adults: it was part of comic actor Lithgow's keynote address at Harvard's 2005 commencement, and the picture book includes a CD of his reading. But children will enjoy the simple rhyming story about the self-reliant, small creature who makes it big, and the double-page, digitally enhanced gouache illustrations are beautiful, especially the image of the little mouse with her laptop, spellbound by the wild-haired teacher. Rochman, Hazel)
Professional Recommendation/Review #2: (Children's Literature - Ken Marantz
It may not be logical, but just accept and enjoy the fantastic tale of Mahalia Mouse, told in deftly crafted verses. Searching for food for her hungry family, she finds herself in a Harvard lecture hall, enjoying an "extremely advanced" course on atoms and space. She thinks the lectures are fascinating, until one day she is discovered and panic erupts. But when the professor happens upon her notes, he is so impressed that he sets her up for four rich and rewarding years of study, sports, even acting. At graduation, her parents, having read about her in the newspaper, proudly attend. Mahalia's story has an unbelievable but delightful ending. Gouache and digital manipulating create atmospheric double pages filled with the mouse family's nest, rain-blurred college buildings, fluorescent-lit lecture hall, and the crowd of cap and gown and mortar-board clad students celebrating with Mahalia and her family. Lithgow reads his text to an appreciative Harvard commencement audience on an included CD.)
Response to Two Professional Reviews: (Both reviews emphasize that the mouse was a genius and that the classes were not just regular classes, they were advanced. I believe they say that because the author wanted impress upon the readers that the very small character makes it BIG. )
Evaluation of Literary Elements: (At the beginning of the book the illustrator uses dark colors, to show the bad times the poor mice family was living. As the story progresses the colors get brighter. The pictures of the mice are very cute; it makes the reader feel caring towards the mouse, even if in real life the reader is scared of mice. The background sounds make the story interactive. With the animation, the reader can see the eyes of the mice opening and closing and the background of rain falling, nothing else moves, just the rain falling and their eyes blinking.)
Consideration of Instructional Application: (After reading this book, students can be encouraged to start to think about their future, and share what they want to do when they grow up. This can be done by drawing or writing or both. For older grades, they can write short-term goals that will help them reach their long-term goal.)

[Tami · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps better known to adults for his stage and screen work, actor John Lithgow has an amazing body of work for children. His picture books are some of my (and my children’s) absolute favorites!

Topping the list for me is The Remarkable Farkle McBride. The story centers around a young boy who is a musical prodigy. He is able to master instrument after instrument with ease, but throws each one away as he becomes bored with it. Through an unfortunate illness on the part of the orchestra conductor one evening, Farkle discovers that it is the sound and experience of ALL the instruments together which brings him joy, as opposed to the mastery of an individual instrument.

The illustrations by C.E. Payne are amazing in their vibrancy and humor. (They remind me of David Catrow with slightly more realistic human facial features.) The text is extremely exciting for several reasons: (1) the melody and rhythm of the words lends itself to read-alouds; (2) the language, while being the opposite of condescending to young readers, is still challenging in vocabulary with words like “beseeching,” “rhapsodical” and “bombastic”; (3) the text contains multiple original examples of onomonapoeia when describing instruments, which offers an excellent opportunity to teach both that specific literary technique, and as an introduction to language as sound, music, and poetry.

The story of Micawber again sees the same team of author and illustrator relate the story of a squirrel who lives in Central Park and enjoys going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One afternoon he sees an art student copying one of the artworks on the wall. This is the first time it has ever occurred to him to think about how the paintings were created in the first place. Intrigued, he stows away in her satchel and accompanies the young student home. Once she is asleep, Micawber, for the first time, experiments with her paints. Using his tail as a brush, he creates his own masterpiece, ties it up with one of the student’s shoelaces and returns home. Once back in Central Park, he converts the upper floor of a carousel into an art museum for the other animals where he shows his growing collection of original canvases.

The same things that are wonderful and thrilling about Farkle exist here in this story about the visual arts. The vocabulary includes words such as “peregrination” and “viridian”. Payne is just as delightful in his illustrations, particularly the image where the student has discovered her shoe–without its shoelace.

Marsupial Sue and Marsupial Sue presents the Runaway Pancake, I’m a Manatee, Mahalia Mouse Goes to College, I Got Two Dogs are additional works by Lithgow.

The Marsupial Sue books are about a kangaroo that wants to be something MORE than a kangaroo, but after traveling to many other areas and trying the ways of several different animals, she determines that being a kangaroo is EXACTLY who and what she wants to be.

I Got Two Dogs is a simple, delightful rhyme about the author’s two dogs with colorful collage-ish illustrations similar in style to those of Todd Parr. I’m a Manatee is a fun, imaginative tale of a boy and a manatee. It can be used for children who are already familiar with and interested in the manatee, or as an introduction to the animal, as well as the dangers to its existence. In my opinion, Mahalia Mouse is the weakest of all his picture books, but it is still a nice little story–just not anything exceptional.

All of Lithgow’s books come with CDs when sold in hardcover. The author usually sings the text of each story on the CD which is great to use at bedtime or in the car.

Lithgow also has music CDs available, which I use at home with my own children, and for my theatre and dance classes. There is an entire Farkle and Friends CD which includes the story of Farkle as well as other pieces of music highlighting orchestral instruments, styles and sounds.

The CDs On the Sunny Side of the Street and Singin’ in the Bathtub contain Broadway and jazz-style songs for children. Some are children’s songs, some songs have the lyrics altered to be extremely silly and appeal specifically to children (and those of us who love music and are children at heart). They are harder to find in retail outlets, but easy to purchase from amazon.com, etc.

Lithgow’s work is for ANYONE who loves language, stories or the arts. I think they are truly brilliant and stand among some of my very favorite books. I highly recommend his work for independent and read-aloud selections.

[Chinook · Rating 5 out of 5]

There were a couple of things I really loved about this.

The rhyming structure - rhyming books are so often such a delight to read aloud but this one is also not the standard simple structure that most kid books used.

The setting - it’s nice to set the idea of university into their heads.

The words - because they are challenging for a picture book and I loved that. It’s good to get some early exposure to harder words and learn to understand by context.

[Shannon Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lithgow, J., & Oleynikov, I. (2007). Mahalia Mouse Goes to College. New York: Simon & Schuster: Books for Young Readers.

Picture Book Soak

This book is about a mouse that secretly starts attending a college after she is unexpectantly separated from her family. Mahalia attends the college until she becomes a full time student, however she is caught by a professor of one of her classes. When the professor realizes how brilliant the mouse is he decides to make her an official student of the college. Mahalia is excited to be a college student but she longs to reunite with her family. Eventually graduation day comes and Mahalia is overjoyed to find out that her family located her after word of her college graduation hit the news and they are there to attend the graduation ceremony.

I love this story and will definitely use it to teach students about self-reliance and perseverance as well as the importance of setting goals, going to college and refusing to fail just as Mahalia did. Not only did I love the story, I also thoroughly enjoyed the correlating pictures. This book would be a great addition to any classroom library.

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julia and I loved this as much as we loved Micawber. We're both excited to get more books by Lithgow in the near future.
I think the best part of these books for me is that they actually speak to adults as well as the children, their intended audience. And I don't mean that adults can simply read and enjoy them too. I mean they really put something through to the reader, no matter the age. I don't think I can name any other children's book(s) or author(s) who can do this so perfectly.
We listened to this story and I didn't care much for the narrator. As the story went on I finally got used to his voice and inflections and I have to admit, he did far, far better than I ever could have done. I'm glad we listened to it rather than my reading it myself because I just wouldn't have done it justice.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend these to anyone with an older toddler and who also really genuinely loves children's books themselves.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read another book written by John Lithgow, so when I saw this at the library I figured, "what the heck?" I was pleasantly surprised with this one. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I definitely didn't expect really big words.

While this is not a book a child could read themselves, I like it when books have big words in them. It encourages children to ask what words mean and gain a larger vocabulary. I don't think that childrens books should be full of these large words because it will really slow down the story and break the flow. But I definitely feel we should be introducing vocabulary to our kids.

I actually really enjoyed the story too. When it first started, I wasn't sure I was going to like it. But as it progressed, it got better. It had a pretty good rhyme to it. I also liked the fact that it shows that if you put your mind to something, you can accomplish anything - and it also shows that going to college is an achievement to be proud of.

I am surprised with how much I actually enjoyed this story. I guess I need to see if Lithgow has written any other books.

[Alan Q · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mahalia Mouse is a mouse who lives with her mouse family in the sewer that on a rainy day, her mother ask her to get some food for the family and she went straight to the dorm cafeteria. When she was getting food, she couldn't help but notice that she was trap in the backpack that is all dark. While he backpack was moving, it came to a stop and then the zipper open which Mahalia found herself filled with people in a lecture classroom. She realize that it is a Human Psychology class. She then decide to stick around for the class. The next day, she was in the class and she was caught by a human yelling "Mouse". Is this the end for Mahalia?

This EBook was really interesting. I like how the illustration showed a part where the backpack was zipping and everything turned black. The narration was very good at acting expression whether if it was happy, sad or any other emotions. I recommend this book for children in second and third grade.

This was an E-Book read through Tumblebooks.com

[Kassandra]

This book can be used with younger children because it shares the story of a mouse encountering the human world. She attends college and after scaring all of the students, she proves herself worthy of a scholarship. This is a great story that shows the struggles of a mouse who lacked money and parental support but still managed to obtain a college degree. There are many ways children can relate to the mouse, especially low income students that will also deal with similar circumstances. There is a lot of rhyming in this book which can be a poetry element that can be taught through the use of this story. The illustrations make the story fun and enjoyable because it's a little mouse trying to do everything a college student does.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my second time reading this book. I read it earlier this year, but don't remember when exactly. The illustrations are alright. It's not the style of art I typically enjoy. The book is basically about a mouse not giving up and pursuing her goal to learn as much as she can.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (short summery)

It's a cute book about a poor little mouse stumbling into a college classroom and deciding to stay and learn more about the class. When discovered, the professor took her under his wing and she was accepted into the college as a student and had all her textbook and supplies purchased for her. She then took many more classes in varying subjects and graduated with a bachelor of science. In the end, she reunited with her family and they were all very happy.

[Nicole Blanar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used the TumbleBooks website to read the ebook version of this story. I like the TumbleBooks website because the text is read to you while the animated picture takes up the other half of the screen. The audio is able to be paced to the child's reading ability and the child can pause or skip to the next page if they wanted to do so. The animations of the pictures are helpful by giving the characters and the story some action and could help a reader to better comprehend the story, however could become distracting. The quizzes to test comprehension are separate from the book and that could be beneficial to eliminate distractions while reading.

[Stephanie Hirsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute book, the words are a little difficult for the age range it was meant for. My kids didn't understand a few things, but were able to recognize the gist of the story. The rhyming is always fun with a children's book, I liked the story, but I also think that some things could have been worked on. Perhaps instead of trying to save the family, Mahalia Mouse could have just been exploring. My kids were asking about whether or not some of the babies died as told in the story. The author doesn't explain that. Overall, it was a good children's book, but not my favorite.

[Anna Kinser · Rating 1 out of 5]

My daughter was not interested in this story. I tried to continue reading it to her. We didn't use the cd since we didn't have access to the cd player at that moment. The color of the book drew us in, but the illustrations on the inside of the book were not the colorful type that one would see in a children's book. She said, "Mama, mice can't do that!". She's 4. Then, she rolled over and said, "Let's just go to sleep.". So I guess, if you want to get your child to go to sleep and be disappointed and bored, then this is the book for you. She didn't even ask to read the book the next day.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are huge John Lithgow fans and read all of his children's books as soon as we can get our hands on them. We found this on on Tumblebooks and just had to listen to it right away. It's a nice, somber tale that speaks to hard work, sacrifice and dedication. Perhaps a nice tale to give to high school seniors as they are about to embark on their college journey? Our girls enjoyed watching this book read aloud on the "Tumblebooks" online audiobook site (tumblebooks.com).

[Jessica Vandewarker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book encourages students to reach for their dreams. Mahalia is a small mouse that finds herself at college and loves to learn. It takes perseverance, yet she graduates with a degree! Though student may find this funny, they will also see the importance of perseverance to acquire their dreams. This may not be a completely relatable book to students, but with discussion about their dreams, they will understand it in a different light.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has nice illustrations. A little mouse wants to learn, and one day she ends up in a college students school bag. She loves the classes, but one day people start screaming, that there is a mouse in the class. The teacher comes to the aid of the mouse, and tells the class that the mouse wants to learn, and is intelligent. Mahahlia goes to school for four years, and graduates, her family members hear about it, and they come to see. Nice little story.

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mahalia is sent out to get food for their starving family and gets locked in a backpack by accidental and taken to college. Unable to find her way home, she stays at the college and learns until she's discovered. She's smart and given a place at the college to continue her studies. When she graduates her picture is in the paper and her family sees her for the first time in years when they show up at the graduation.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is fun to read about how the little mouse goes to a college. This is another book where it is written from the animal's point of view. It talks about the hardship and the difficult times. I have used this book to talk about term that relates to college. It will be good to read to those who have older siblings that go to college, so that they can have a personal connection with the book.

[Trisha Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Until I found this book I had no idea that John Lithgow had written book let alone children's books. I liked that he incorporated his speech to the Harvard graduates of 2005 into this book. It captured the life of most college students to a "T". I also liked Mahalia she was a cute little mouse with such a big appetite for learning. I wish I never loose that appetite like Mahalia.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book! In classic Lithgow tradition, the rhythm, rhyme and vocabulary are strong. More than that, though, is the story of someone small and with few prospects working really hard, at great risk, to learn and to graduate from college. Mahalia is a mouse to look up to!

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Lithgow does it again. Awesome illustrations.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. It's lyrical and fantastic.

[Bear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cute!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Higher level vocabulary (maybe high/EOY 2nd graders).

Great cute story about college, introduces college terms (professor, dormitory, etc.)

[Mariah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I personally like this book, but it is a bit text-heavy for its target audience. The illustrations are great. Excellent audio, too, of course.

[Alice Gold · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is probably my second favorite of Lithgow's after I got two dogs

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a very nice story that encourages people to follow their dreams.

[Manal Ramadan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poetry and vocabulary in this book make it a fun book to read to children.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picture Book

[Barbara Law · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a sweet story of a mouse going to college, persevering and eventually graduating but is nobody else disturbed by the fact Mahalia literally never goes back to her family?! Her mother sends her on a desperate quest to get life-saving food, and she never brings back a crumb, not a word, in 4 YEARS. Like, what?! I know it's a children's book and teaches us about coming from situations of no privilege, but she couldn't send word? It truly ruined the book for me. Not a word and they find out in the paper.

[Myra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Popsugar 2019 challenge – picture book edition! - A book set on college or university campus

Cute, sweet story.