Published by Candlewick

Summary:  It’s after hours at the big museum when a tiny creature darts out of the shadows.  It’s Dakota Crumb, mouse treasure hunter, following his map to find the treasure marked by an X.  As he travels toward his destination, he finds a few other valuable items (a postage stamp and an action figure) that he pops into his knapsack.  At last, in the Ancient Egypt exhibit, after staring down the cat statue, he finds what he came for: the valuable purple gumdrop.  His mission accomplished, Dakota hurries back to his mouse house, which turns out to be a museum in its own right.  Dakota’s treasures are on display for the crowd of animals that comes to visit in the morning.  Includes pictures of small items in the museum that Dakota did and did not find; kids can go back to the story to see if they can spot them.  32 pages; ages 3-7.

Pros:  I would have loved this book so much as a kid, when I was kind of obsessed with miniature animals and creating imaginary worlds for them (okay, I still may have some of those tendencies).  The language almost rhymes, with lots of bounce and energy to match Dakota’s, and the illustrations give an excellent introduction to what’s in an art museum.  The puzzle pages at the end add to the fun.

Cons:  I didn’t quite understand where the gumdrop had been hidden.