Once a Mouse...

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Aladdin, 1961 - Juvenile Fiction - 32 pages
Marcia Brown retells an Indian fable from the Hitopadesa in this Caldecott Medal–winning tale of a mouse who becomes a tiger.

When a small mouse’s life is threatened by large jungle predators, a kindly hermit uses magic to change him into a cat, a dog, and a majestic tiger. But the proud tiger must suffer the consequences when he becomes ungrateful and forgets his humble origins. Marcia Brown’s magical woodcuts bring this Indian fable to life with the mastery that won her a second Caldecott Medal.

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About the author (1961)

Marcia Joan Brown, 1918 - 2015 Marcia Joan Brown was born in Rochester, New York on July 13, 1918. She graduated from New York State College for Teachers (the University at Albany's predecessor). She taught at Cornwall High School in New York City, where she began her writing career with the publication of The Little Carousel in 1946. She authored and illustrated more than 30 children's books. She won the Caldecott Medal three times for Cinderella, Once a Mouse, and Shadow. Brown died on April 28 at her home in Laguna Hills, California, following complications of congestive heart failure. She was 96.

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