Hester Mouse needs a reprint. This is a cute, timeless precursor to Russell Hoban's existential juggernaut of kidlit, the Mouse and His Child (1967), and, in many ways, just as enjoyable.

It's dark, at times, and our heroes -- all of them -- are crushed by their lack of control over their lives, by the burden of their very natures. A mouse is a mouse, an owl an owl, and the nature of one is to feed on the other. Their places are well understood (and the loftier positions even brings about lofty self-evaluations!), but Hester Mouse and her kin don't have to like their destinies.

This is the story of Hester Mouse, and how she came to escape her fate by tumbling into another just as uncontrollable. She's not a writer herself -- for a mouse will never write -- but the accidental inspiration to a writer unable to write. Mostly by accident, he plucks her from the owl's intent and gives her a wheel to explore. The owl wants his story told, and Hester wants to tell it -- the writer just wants to write whatever inspiration brings.

It's cute, and surprisingly complex under the thin layers of children's literature. (Though it certainly feels like a warm-up to his aforementioned 1967 masterpiece.) If you can find it, snatch it up, if you can't, politely clamor for a new treatment, please. ( )