NOISY NORA

Compared to Jane Breskin Zalben's icky pink siblings in Cecilia's Older Brother (1973), Nora and her family are both more essentially mouselike and more recognizably human. Any child who has felt left out of the family schedule and affections can identify with Nora, skulking on the edges of Mother's skirt or Father's chair or waiting all lost and tiny on the nursery floor. All the more satisfying then when Nora reacts as her human counterparts might want to—"First she knocked the lamp down / Then she felled some chairs. / Then she took her brother's kite / And flew it down the stairs"—and the more reassuring when she is searched for in panic and welcomed back with joy after she finally runs away.