This was one of those books I loved so much and had so many good memories of that years later I finally tracked down a copy of my own from a used book-seller (thank goodness for the internet!). It’s a simple, sweet little story about a mouse who finds an abandoned jack-o-lantern and decides to make it his home for the winter. My favorite part of the book is the bit where Mouskin gathers up feathers and milkweed to build his nest inside the pumpkin. I wished I could sleep inside a pumpkin stuffed full of thistledown! It sounded so nice!

It’s also the sort of book that makes you want to go out into the woods and just stand there, under the trees. The illustrations are quite life-like and gently neutral and earthy, and the prose is poetic without being overbearing.

In the woods
there are many tall trees,
and small trees
that reach to grow tall
in the deep shade.
There are low-growing bushes
with berries and seeds
that pop and roll
about the forest floor.

Beneath them all
are tiny paths
that only mice can see.

~ from Mousekin’s Golden House by Edna Miller