Eva Lindstrom’s My Dog Mouse is lovely, lyrical, and touching. It gives a very real sense of what kids wants, and of dog-person relations.
The story is slight and slow. It isn’t going too far to say that rather than a full story, it is a love letter or a love poem. The entire text of the first page reads, “I love Mouse,” and shows a little kid getting ready to go outside. The next pages show the kid asking to take Mouse (a dog) for a walk, and then heading out into the world with him. Mouse is an old dog and a fat one, and walks slowly. He’s also kind and loving.
There’s no conflict in the story until the last pages. Before that time, the kid just recounts what they do together, which is go to the park (slowly), eat things (mostly Mouse) and love each other.
Then, at the end of the book, the kid takes Mouse home to his owner, and on the last page with text, says, “I wish Mouse was mine.” A gut punch.
The kid walks home, with Mouse watching out the window after.
The images here are uneven and childlike, and fit well with the story, giving a real sense of how children’s emotional lives work, and perhaps how dogs’ lives work too.
It’s easy to see why Eva Lindstrom won the Astrid Lingren Memorial Award in 2022.
