Particularly the drawings of the mice riding their bikes through the city in the blue of the night. The tri-color pictures are dainty and sweet. (I, too, can admit Puss and Boots used to scare me when I was little.) However, Anatole is just lovely. I think it's just his illustration style, but my son gets the creeps from a few of his characters. Some of Paul Galdone's other titles scare the crap out of my son (don't even mention the book Henny Penny in my house. I know there are at least 10 books about the little mouse Anatole but this was the first time I'd ever run into any of them. To which he wins kudos of praise and is invited to eat freely from the factory's stock for the rest of his life- a common thief no more.

His idea is to sneak into a cheese factory and leave little notes atop cheeses with helpful hints on how to make the flavors better.

'If only we could give people something in return- But alas, that is impossible!'Īnatole jumped up and danced Doucette around the room 'Impossible? Perhaps not ma petite! You have given me an idea.' 'You are so right, Anatole,' she said sadly. When he discovers how human beings hate mice because of their thieving ways, he is aghast and devastated.ĭoucette comforted him. Sooo, there's this adorably French daddy mouse, replete with beret and smoking jacket.

I imagine in a city like Paris there is room for more than one culinary connoisseur of the rodent kind. I know not whether this book actually inspired the film, but it hardly matters. On our first reading, even my four-year-old made the Ratatouille connection. The Goodwill this holiday weekend brought me two more classics I'd never seen before: Anatole and Anatole and the Cat. Eve Titus ~ Paul Galdone ~ MacGraw-Hill, 1956

Anatole by eve titus