When the mouse jumped in the red paint, I asked the kid to find the word "red", which I knew he could read; he found "blue" and "yellow" without being asked. An engaging story about some mice playing with paints and trying to stay away from a cat at the same time.

ELLEN STOLL WALSH is the author and illustrator of many award-winning early concept books for young children, including Mouse Paint, Mouse Count, and the Dot and Jabber trilogy. They washed themselves off to become white again and decided to paint on paper instead to create the newfound colors.They first dive into the paint to color themselves, then splash in paint puddles and discover that primary colors, when combined, make new colors. LE: After the story you can take the children to the art center where you will have paper and finger paint ready for them. Good story to read aloud with children, especially if you can engage them to guess what colors come next.

I thought it was a little confusing because the of pictures displayed and the mice jumping in the puddles could be misleading to young kiddos. Mouse Paint was perfect for this kid, who told me that it is his destiny to be an artist: the pictures are simple, beautiful, and dynamic.I liked that it taught her more about colors and that it encouraged interaction between the two of us while we read it. This story is probably best suited for babies and toddlers, but its humor will also appeal to the kindergarten and early-elementary ages.

However, albeit that Mouse Paint is to and for me a three star book (as that cat textually not really doing anything except being kind of a placeholder so to speak is certainly more than a bit of an annoyance), well, obtaining and reading the 2010 dual language English/Spanish edition of Mouse Paint, yes, this does make me raise those three stars to a very solidly and appreciated four stars for Mouse Paint / Pintura de raton. It is suitable for interior use on newly plastered or previously painted walls and ceilings, for a beautiful, durable finish that is both wipeable and gently washable. As an art teacher, I have read this book to hundreds of kindergartners over the years before teaching primary and secondary color theory. For when in Mouse Paint the three mice start playing with and in the paint jars and become colourful and thus no longer white, the cat is then not shown by Stoll Walsh as suddenly noticing and trying to chase the mice, the cat just seems to totally disappear, leaving kind of an annoying textual thread going nowhere (which does not really bother my inner child all that much but certainly is a bit frustrating to and for my adult reading self).

It could also be used to introduce primary and secondary colors into an art project where students mix there own paint and color in white mice. Children will catch onto the pattern with the authors repetitious words and the coaxing illustrations. I don't like the constant insistence in our media to cast cats as villains in our culture, but I like the way it was just presented as a gentle fact that cats chase mice in this book. I think this book did have some positive intentions though, but the way it was portrayed could be troublesome for a young child.