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Author: Sir Henry Cole / Year: 1808-1882 / Genre: 6-9yrs. Celeste is not your average mouse. She lives alone, quietly weaving baskets with creative flair under the floor
boards of the Oakley Plantation. However, Celeste’s world turns upside down with the arrival of the great naturalist
John James Audubon and his assistant Joseph, who have come to study and paint the birds of the Louisiana bayou.
Their arrival coincides with Celeste’s sudden displacement from her home below to a guest room upstairs.
There she watches young Joseph struggle to create the backgrounds for Audubon’s bird paintings. As the
two homesick souls strike up a friendship, the mouse secretly puts her artistic skills to good use; she
simultaneously helps Joseph improve his compositions while aiding the wounded birds that Audubon
captures for his studies. Nearly every page of author-illustrator Henry Cole's fine novel combines text
and remarkable drawn images to tell the story of a mouse in need of a home of her own from the tiny
creature's unique vantage point.
