"When a child's mother is too busy for stories, he follows some tracks in the snow and makes up his own. Nature tells good stories if we only get outside and look around." -- Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review "Words and pictures work together to tell a taut and just-right-for-the-audience suspenseful tale. Mixed-media illustrations evoke the majesty of the wintry landscape but keep the focus on Milo's--and the mouse's--small journey. Young viewers will enjoy doing some noticing of their own: details such as a berry dropped by a cedar waxwing that the mouse brings back to its mate make the book even more satisfying." -- The Horn Book, Starred Review "The limited text and detailed illustrations, done in mixed media, capture a wide variety of wild animals and the interplay among them as they search for food and try to survive. Superb illustrations that carry the story along make this an outstanding choice for collections seeking winter stories."-- School Library Journal , Starred Review "Woodruff's ( A Quieter Story ) spare, evocative text ('A cold wind crept beneath Milo's scarf') quietly amplifies her expansive watercolor, pen-and-ink, and colored pencil drawings, which alternate between highly distilled snowy scenes and lushly detailed spreads; in one scene .

It's a richly narrative landscape--one that should inspire readers to venture outside and notice stories of their own." -- Publishers Weekl y, Starred Review "Audiences, who have been allowed a view of the real animal activities, may have quite a different story of the mouse's fate than Milo, who has to fill in more blanks with his imagination, which opens the possibility for a discussion of viewpoint and perception. Endpapers display ten animals that figure into the tale, several of which may send viewers on quite a hunt to locate within the pages. They payoff, though, is a satisfying story that can change with each rereading of Milo's speculations and each reexamination of Woodruff's crafty mixed media scenes." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.