MARTHA THE MOVIE MOUSE
illustrated by Arnold Lobel
Once there was the mouse who rushed into the prompter's box at the Met to lead the singers.... Martha is a derivative, declasse vermin who rushes on to the apron at a movie house, distracting the angry audience with her dancing long enough for her protector, the projectionist, to splice a split reel. Her tale (in rhyme) seems too long to hold the youngest happy wanderers. She goes from waif mouse to theater mouse to homeless mouse to theatre mouse-returned before her big moment springs down as surely as a cheese loaded trap.