The Curse of Mousebeard (Mousehunter) - Hardcover

Alex Milway currently lives in London and works in magazines, where he discovered his love of writing. He once had a run-in with a particularly deadly Sharpclaw Mouse but lived to tell the tale. The Mousehunter: The Curse of Mousebeard is the lively follow-up to his exciting debut novel for young readers, The Mousehunter.

Grade 4–6—Emiline and her friends are back in this sequel to The Mousehunter (Little, Brown, 2009), and familiarity with that book will better acquaint readers with the characters and the world they inhabit. Having escaped execution in Old Town at the hands of detestable mouse collector Isiah Lovelock, the new crew of the Silver Shark is determined to stop Lovelock's latest scheme, but first must find a way to free the pirate captain Mousebeard from the curse that prevents him from setting foot on land. Their quest leads them in search of the mythical island of Norgammon, and they are joined by Indigo, a fellow mousekeeper also on the run from the Old Town Guard. Action and adventure abound as plucky Emiline once again takes to the high seas. As with the first book, chapters are interspersed with illustrated entries from the Mousekeeper's Almanac where readers encounter everything from the Slime-toothed Fang Mouse to the Northern Musical Mouse. While some of these mice feature in the story, more often they serve to fill out the imaginative world that Milway has created. Some readers may be disappointed that more time isn't spent exploring the mysteries found on Norgammon; others will simply be anxious to see how the trilogy ends.—Amanda Raklovits, Champaign Public Library, IL
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