Reader's Diary #1314- Jennifer Holm (Writer), Matthew Holm (Artist): Babymouse Queen of the World

I suppose I could complain about the lack of originality in creating yet another cartoon mouse, but I'm not sure what the point would be. Aimed at kids, I'm guessing that those mice of yore (Mickey, Mighty, and so on) aren't as relevant as they once were and kids today won't really care.

Actually, the look of the mice in Babymouse Queen of the World! (there are other animals), reminded me of those in Spielgelman's Maus so there are worse mice one might want to emulate.

Unlike Spiegelman, however, Jennifer Holm's story is much lighter. There is a message (be grateful for the friends you have because the grass is not always greener), but again mostly a quick fun story for kids.

While there's nothing groundbreaking, I do think this series could be a good gateway to graphic novels with just enough creativity behind the entertainment. In one of the better scenes, Babymouse is trying to impress Felicia the cat and rambles on and on. The speech balloon and the words don't all fit onto the page and it hardly matters that we're not getting all of the words, because the true point is, she's rambling. I also enjoyed the limited white and pink palette; not only did it fit the tone, but how Matthew Holm mixed it up so that the main story was white with just a touch of pink while daydreams were pink with just a touch of white, was also a nice touch.