It’s a gloomy day in Cambridge town when tiny Mahalia Mouse, trapped in a student’s backpack whilst out on a food-finding mission for her pitiful little family, is transported to a strange, other world: academia, where she becomes a mouse on a mission! Riveted by the rantings of a wild-haired physics professor and emboldened by a heartening dream-message from her mother, unlikely scholar Mahalia undertakes a grueling course of study, succeeding “by simply refusing to fail.” Come commencement day, she dons a mini-mortarboard and is hailed by all in Harvard Yard, her humble, long-lost family among them. Oleynikov’s paintings are rich, fabulous full-bleed animated adventures in light, perspective and scale, which create dramatic settings for diminutive Mahalia’s story of pathos and persistence. This rhyming-text portion of the keynote address delivered by author/alumnus Lithgow to Harvard University’s Class of 2005 is accompanied by a CD recording of his performance. (Picture book. 5-10)
