ONCE A MOUSE

These superb woodcuts in strong line and color hardly require a text and Miss Brown has made a wise decision in employing only a few line to retell the ancient Indian table of a mouse who is transformed into a cat, then a dog and finally a royal tiger by a sympathetic old . It is the magnificence beast's decline to his original form that reflects the moral, however sad, in a deceptively slight story. The impressive illustrations are enough to carry the young listener -- the provocative meaning will hold the older child.