Fuse n’ Kate: The Story of Jumping Mouse by John Steptoe

We return to John Steptoe once again today, though with perhaps a more complicated title than many of his that we’ve done before. We discuss at length whether or not this book can legitimately call itself “A Native American legend” and what that does for a contemporary read. This book won itself a Caldecott Honor. Did it deserve it? We have a lot of other questions as well. Does the magic frog have an angle here? Where does the fat old mouse fit into it? Is the aforementioned Magic Frog just Glinda from The Wizard of Oz? And is this story a variation on Rainbow Fish or The Happy Prince?

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, Audible, Amazon Music, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

Before you go anywhere else, the best place to begin when discussing this book is the American Indians in Children’s Literature piece Debbie–have you seen JUMPING MOUSE: A NATIVE AMERICAN LEGEND OF FRIENDSHIP AND SACRIFICE by Misty Schroe? While that piece was talking about a different variation on this story, she does talk about the Steptoe version and she says this: “What we have in Steptoe’s book is his retelling of a retelling from an unreliable source.” And she has a LOT of sources she’s drawing from as well.

How do you go about illustrating water reflecting a small mammal with graphite? Not a clue but somehow John Steptoe did it. “I don’t know how to even draw a mouse, let alone a wavy reflection in water”.

This almost makes the whole book worth it. This mouse. His face! He’s SO cranky! That mouth! We him, him us.

Kate was just really drawn to the cranky looking creatures found in this book. This owl? You know what he doesn’t give? It’s a hoot, folks. A hoot.

Kate Recommends: The game Ravine

Betsy Recommends: The Stuff You Should Know podcast (particularly the episode The Three Christs of Ypsilanti Experiment

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate