Mouse and Mole: The Secret of Happiness

Gr 1-3–In these two new additions to the “Mouse and Mole” series, the dissimilar animal characters are back with three stories per book. In A Fresh Start, Mouse and Mole cope with such issues as thunderstorms, friendship woes, and choosing a boat. The problems in The Secret of Happiness are very much in the same vein. For example, in the titular story, poor Mole wakes up from a dream where he learned the secret of happiness and spends the rest of the day trying to remember what it was that was particularly enjoyable. Dunbar provides gentle reassurance to readers that though there may be friendship problems, anything is possible. Mouse and Mole work together by being each others’ sounding board, and while they may disagree, at the end of the day they know their friendship is more important. The soft colors of the illustrations bring to mind Arnold Lobel’s “Frog and Toad” with their delicate linework.