Pippa Mouse

Pippa Mouse
  • Pippa Mouse
  • Here's Pippa Again!
  • Pippa Pops Out!
  • Hurray for Pippa!
AuthorBetty Boegehold
IllustratorCyndy Szekeres
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreChildren's fiction
PublisherAlfred A. Knopf
Published1973–1980

Pippa Mouse is a series of children's books by American author Betty Boegehold, with illustrations by Cyndy Szekeres. Each book features four or six short adventures about the titular character, an independent female mouseling living in the woods. Boegehold originally conceived the character as a boy named Pippen, but changed the name and gender under persuasion from a lecture on literary sexism.

The four original Pippa titles were published by Alfred A. Knopf between 1973 and 1980. A compilation of the first two followed posthumously in 1989, with re-illustrated installments from Random House following a decade later. The series earned mixed to positive reception throughout its run.

Overview

Pippa, the titular character of the series, is a brown-eyed woodland mouse dressed in a pinafore.[1][2] With her friends—a squirrel, duck, bird, and cricket—she engages in "playful adventures".[1] As early as the first installment, she "is allowed by her wise parents to test out her own abilities."[3]

Pippa was originally a boy mouse named Pippen in Betty Boegehold's original manuscript; a Princeton, New Jersey lecture on literary sexism convinced her to change the character's name and gender. In a 1973 Mount Vernon Argus story, she stated her intent for the first book: "[I planned] to show a sturdy [independent] activist, but my main point was to show that everything you do doesn't necessarily work."[4] By the start of the 1980s, Pippa was promoted as a non-sexist series for young readers.[5]

Original books

The original Pippa Mouse series consists of four books published by Knopf. Each story by Boegehold is only several lines in length, and is accompanied by black-and-white illustrations from Cyndy Szekeres.[a]

#TitleDateStoriesRef.ISBN
1Pippa MouseSeptember 19736[6]0-394-82671-X
2Here's Pippa Again!April 19756[7]0-394-83090-3
3Pippa Pops Out!March 19794[8]0-394-84057-7
4Hurray for Pippa!March 19804[9]0-394-84067-4

Posthumous books

At the end of the 1990s, Random House's Jellybean Books imprint posthumously re-released two Pippa stories, with Julie Durrell as their new illustrator.[10][11] A third one, A Pet for Pippa Mouse (ISBN 0-679-99340-1), was announced on the back cover of a Sesame Street Jellybean title,[12] and listed in the 2002 edition of R.R. Bowker's Children's Books in Print.[11] A 1989 compilation of the first two books, Here's Pippa!,[13] was in print as late as 2003.[14]

TitleDateRef.ISBN
Here's Pippa!1989[13]0-394-82702-3
Collects the stories of the first two installments.[14]
Pippa Mouse's HouseFall 1998[10][11]0-679-99191-3
A reprint of "Her Mouse House" from the 1973 original.[15]
Hurray for Christmas!1999[16]0-375-80148-0
A reprint of the Christmas story from the 1973 original.[17][b]

Reception

"A perfect book for the quiet, gentle child. Especially a gentle mouse-loving child."

"A list of the world's most adorable, furry creatures would have to include Pippa, along with baby chickens and kittens."

Raymond Teague, The Mini Page[19]

Both Pippa Mouse and Here's Pippa Again! were selections of the Junior Literary Guild.[20] The inaugural installment was also a bestseller during its original publication, and was recommended by Gene Shalit of The Today Show.[4] The series remained popular into the mid-1980s;[21] sales of the posthumous title, Pippa Mouse's House, reached more than 117,000 in early 1999.[22]

Throughout its publication, the series received mixed to positive reviews. Writing for the Modern Language Association journal Chilldren's Literature, Sandra Fenichel Asher had mixed feelings on the first book. Despite the warmth of Boegehold and Szekeres' work, she said it "would do better as read-to-me for the preschool set. I fear the modern first grader is too sophisticated for such cuteness".[23] Jane Yolen of Massachusetts' Daily Hampshire Gazette positively reviewed the first and fourth titles; she wrote that Pippa's charm overcame the sentimentality of Szekeres' illustrations,[18] and declared Hurray "as true to the heart and the funnybone as the others."[24]

Reviewers of the other three original installments found Szekeres' artwork of the titular character fitting for Boegehold's text, and vice versa.[25][26][27] However, a local Kentucky librarian critiqued the text of Again! in the Lexington Herald-Leader: "Why [the author] decided to write in the present tense is a puzzle. It casts an awkward gait on the free spirited prose."[26] The School Library Journal gave the 1973 debut a starred review,[6] but was more critical of later books. They wrote that Pops Out! "dawdles" with a clichéd "new-baby-brother" ending;[8] Hurray's story was "as cluttered as [the mouseling's] pack-rat nest";[9] and Christmas! had an "overly sweet story [line] and too-cute illustrations."[16] In a retrospective capsule review, Masha Rudman stated that the series "delights young children at the same time that it offers them a lively, bright model for their consideration."[28]

Notes

  1. ^ Attributed to multiple sources: Christian 1973, Claiborne 1973, Ehlert & Gerhardt 1975, Coffey 1979, Coffey 1980, and Spencer 1980.
  2. ^ Connor 1999: "Pippa is tucked into bed with the story of 'Not-Even.' ('Not a creature was stirring,/Not-Even, a mouse...!')"

References

General

Specific

  1. ^ a b Cooper-Mullin, Alison; Coye, Jennifer Marmaduke (1998). "Preschool Read-Alouds". Once Upon a Heroine: 450 Books for Girls to Love. McGraw-Hill Professional. p. 17. ISBN 0-8092-3020-8. Retrieved October 30, 2025 – via Archive.org.
  2. ^ Kennedy, Pat (November 4, 1976). "Bookworm". Pleasanton Times. Pleasanton, California. p. 6. Retrieved November 9, 2025 – via Archive.org.
  3. ^ Klinman, Debra G.; Kohl, Rhiana (1984). "Books for Children". Fatherhood U.S.A.. Garland Publishing. p. 241. ISBN 0-8240-9012-8. Retrieved November 9, 2025 – via Archive.org.
  4. ^ a b Connell, Tara (November 20, 1973). "Author of a child's imaginings". Mount Vernon Argus. p. 9. Retrieved October 29, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Hayden, Pat Quinn (September 28, 1980). "Writer sees through child's eyes". Mount Vernon Argus. p. E 9. Retrieved October 30, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b Ehlert, Alice (December 15, 1973). "Beginning-to-Read: Pippa Mouse". School Library Journal. Library Journal. p. 3716. Retrieved November 9, 2025 – via Archive.org.
  7. ^ Ehlert, Alice; Gerhardt, Lillian N. (May 1975). "Beginning-to-Read: Here's Pippa Again!". School Library Journal. Vol. 21, no. 9. p. 67. ISSN 0362-8930. Retrieved October 30, 2025 – via EBSCOhost.
  8. ^ a b Coffey, Kathy (May 1979). "Filboid Studge: Pippa Pops Out!". School Library Journal. Vol. 25, no. 9. p. 80. ISSN 0362-8930. Retrieved October 30, 2025 – via EBSCOhost.
  9. ^ a b Coffey, Kathy (May 1980). "Fair to Partly Cloudy: Hurray for Pippa!". School Library Journal. Vol. 26, no. 9. p. 82. ISSN 0362-8930. Retrieved October 30, 2025 – via EBSCOhost.
  10. ^ a b Lodge, Sally (July 20, 1998). "Children's Books for Fall". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 245, no. 29. p. 132P. ISSN 0000-0019. Retrieved October 30, 2025 – via Gale General OneFile.
  11. ^ a b c Children's Books in Print 2002. Vol. 1: Authors & Publishers. R.R. Bowker. 2002. p. 131. ISBN 0-8352-4412-1. Retrieved October 30, 2025 – via Archive.org.
  12. ^ Albee, Sarah (2000). The Bunny Hop: Featuring Jim Henson's Sesame Street Muppets. Jellybean Books (Random House). p. Back cover. ISBN 0-375-80386-6 – via Archive.org.
  13. ^ a b Books in Print: 1992–93. Vol. 6: Titles ◆ E–K. R.R. Bowker. 1992. p. 3073. ISBN 0-8352-3211-5. Retrieved October 30, 2025 – via Archive.org.
  14. ^ a b "BookPicks". Spartanburg Herald-Journal. October 8, 2003. p. D8. Retrieved October 30, 2025 – via Google News Archive.
  15. ^ "Pippa Mouse's house". CiNii. Jellybean books. National Institute of Informatics. 1998. Retrieved November 7, 2025.
  16. ^ a b Connor, Anne (October 1999). "Hurray for Christmas! / Patrick's Christmas Tree". School Library Journal. Vol. 45, no. 10. p. 65. ISSN 0362-8930. Retrieved October 30, 2025 – via ProQuest.
  17. ^ Claiborne, Margaret (December 2, 1973). "For Christmas, 'Penguin' Offers Message of Hope (For Young Readers)". The Charlotte Observer. p. 4C. Retrieved November 8, 2025 – via Newspapers.com. The Christmas story is delightful, as Pippa snuggles down to hear a bedtime tale about Not-Even, a mouse.
  18. ^ a b Yolen, Jane (June 21, 1975). "Children's bookfare: Ever popular mouse books". Daily Hampshire Gazette. Northampton, Massachusetts. p. 6. Retrieved November 8, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ Teague, Raymond (June 2, 1979). "The Lower Shelf". The Mini Page. Fort Worth Star-Telegram. p. 3. Retrieved November 9, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ Metzger, Linda, ed. (1984). "Boegehold, Betty (Doyle) 1913–". Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series. Vol. 12. Gale Research. p. 68. ISBN 0-8103-1941-1. Retrieved October 30, 2025 – via Archive.org.
  21. ^ Neville Jones, Louise (July 8, 1984). "Reading is subject of book". The Reporter Dispatch. White Plains, New York: Gannett. p. E 3. Retrieved October 30, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ Roback, Diane (March 29, 1999). "Licensed Tie-ins Make Registers Ring". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 246, no. 13. p. 46. ISSN 0000-0019. Retrieved October 30, 2025 – via Gale General OneFile.
  23. ^ Fenichel Asher, Sandra (1974). "Poems, Prayers, Pets, and a Princess". Chilldren's Literature. 3. Modern Language Association/Johns Hopkins University Press: 206. doi:10.1353/chl.0.0171. ISSN 0092-8208. Retrieved October 30, 2025 – via Project MUSE.
  24. ^ Yolen, Jane (June 6, 1980). "People and life: Children's bookfare: Talking birds and chattering beasts make good book fare". Daily Hampshire Gazette. Northampton, Massachusetts. p. 12. Retrieved November 8, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ Hodge Hall, Barbara (April 8, 1979). "Children's books: 'Pippa Pops Out!'". World of Books. The Anniston Star. p. 12E. Retrieved October 29, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ a b Shannon, George (August 29, 1976). "Books for Back-to-School Reading: Here's Pippa Again!". Lexington Herald-Leader. p. D-14. Retrieved October 29, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ Spencer, Sandra (August 17, 1980). "Good children's books can make reading a fun adventure". Clarion-Ledger — Jackson Daily News. p. 16/E. Retrieved November 8, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ^ Rudman, Masha Kabakow (1984). "Gender Roles". Children's Literature: An Issues Approach. New York City: Longman. p. 133. ISBN 0-582-28398-1. Retrieved November 9, 2025 – via Archive.org.
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