If You Want to Write a Story
by Jeff Mack; illus. by the author
Primary    Porter/Holiday    40 pp.
7/25    9780823458189    $18.99

A small mouse sits at a desk with a furrowed brow, surrounded by discarded papers littering the floor. Observing the mouse’s struggle with writer’s block, a stuffed bunny springs into action to lead the mouse down a rabbit hole of imagination. An ordinary cardboard box becomes a rocket ship, blasting the critters into space past chocolate-chip-cookie-like space rocks. “Writing a story is like traveling through space. It may take a long time. You may not know where you’re going, but sooner or later…you arrive!” Landing on a strange planet, the mouse and rabbit encounter a menacing cyclops and a goofy, grape-colored extraterrestrial with several more eyes than legs. When the cyclops captures the rabbit, the mouse draws from the inspiration that exists all around to rewrite the end of their story. Mack (recently the more earthbound Time to Make Art, rev. 1/24) here revisits the theme of creativity, smartly blending an elaborate analogy of the writing process into the visual telling of one mouse’s space odyssey. Digital illustrations in saturated hues depict deep magenta skies, tangerine orange terrain, and turquoise seas. This cosmic adventure will inspire many readers to write their own stories and follow their imaginations to unexpected places.

From the September/October 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.