The Mouse and his Child

Hoban's The Mouse and His Child comes in joint 87th in a BBC Culture poll to find the greatest children's books ever written. Some 177 books experts from 56 countries were involved in the poll.

Children's author and university creative writing teacher Philip Womack names The Mouse and His Child no. 25 in his list of the 30 all-time best books for children: "A bittersweet and unusual tale, in which a clockwork mouse and his child are thrown out of a toy shop, and then must embark on a journey to find safety. Unlike the film Toy Story, in which the toys are complicit in their servitude, this allows discarded toys to find a world of their own, constructed according to their own terms. Full of striking imagery and exciting scenes." (The Independent, 14/10/18) HT: Alida Allison.

Elizabeth Bird reproduces a "lost" interview she did with Russell Hoban in 2010, in which he talks about his upcoming books Soonchild and Rosie's Magic Horse and comments on the Frances books, The Mouse and His Child, The Marzipan Pig and other titles for children.

Marjorie Ingall reviews the 2018 exhibition at the Beinecke Library of Russell and Lillian Hoban's collaborations, with an emphasis on Lillian. Includes some fascinating details from private interviews with the Hobans' children, as well as remarks on the manuscripts on display at the exhibition including an unpublished Frances title.

Bartender and writer Michael J. Neff pays tribute to Russell Hoban: "I owe Mr. Hoban a lot, because his was one of the first books that showed me how stories could be told."

A full list (PDF) of all the manuscripts of children's books and novels, plus diaries, correspondence and notebooks, acquired by the Beinecke Library in 2017 from Russell Hoban's family. The list describes over 80 boxes of papers including various drafts of classic works such as Riddley Walker, The Mouse and His Child and The Medusa Frequency, as well as a number of curios including an invitation to the White House and correspondence with Harold Pinter. The actual list of items can be explored online at https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/5739 via the sidebar.

Michael Dirda's round-up of the best American fiction in this article dated 1 June 1997 names Russell Hoban: 'at his best he is the finest all-round writer in the world: author of brilliant picture books (about Frances the Badger and Captain Najork); of a wistful, Beckett-like parable for middle readers, The Mouse and His Child; and of the inspired Riddley Walker, a post-nuclear holocaust Huckleberry Finn, told in fractured English, largely about spiritual regeneration. Like this last's youthful hero, Hoban remains at heart a "connection man," looking for meaning beneath the surfaces of life.'