Art History Children's Book | MousterWorks by Angela C. Hawkins -

Children's book titled "MousterWorks" by Angela C. Hawkins, featuring a mouse painting a version of "Girl with a Pearl Earring" on the cover, with art icons and text above.

Are you looking for a fun art history children’s book? MousterWorks is an awesome new book that connects with art history! You will love this very fun book by Angela C. Hawkins. Keep reading to learn more about this book.

About 5 years ago, Angela contacted me to share about a challenge she was doing where she was recreating 52 different masterpieces in her own illustrative style. You can check out the old blog post about this mousterpiece challenge here. I’m excited to share with you her new children’s book that was created as a result of her illustration challenge.

I also have an interview with Angela about her process. Also check out Angela’s website for companion activities! MousterWorks.com.

(Amazon Affiliate links have been used at no extra cost to you. The earnings go to support the costs of this free blog.)

Two mice stand in a room looking at a painting of a girl in bed with a black cat. Text appears on the wall and a large bird peers through a doorway.

What is the MousterWorks children’s book all about?

From the book’s description: “When young mice, Cosette and Pepin, join their Grand-mere on a visit to a mouse-sized museum, they cannot help but notice details, ask questions, and think creatively. As they move from gallery to gallery featuring the MOUSTERWORKS of famous master artists, their senses are awakened to spark their imaginations. From the dribble, dribble of milk splashing out of a pail to the pitter pat of toddeling feet on a stone floor, Cosette and Pepin are inspired to create their own mouster-pieces, using items and events found in their everyday lives, including a hunk of delicious cheese!”

Two illustrated mice stand in front of a large painting resembling Vermeer’s "The Milkmaid." One mouse looks at the painting while the other looks around the gallery.

Bringing Art History to Life

First, it is perfect for an elementary art class. There are famous artworks that are recreated in Angela’s own style that the mice see as they are visiting the art museum. This would be great to read to kids before an art museum trip or just a fun book to read to introduce them to different artworks.

Three mice explore an art museum; two look at paintings, and one peers into a gallery of ballet dancers and fairies surrounded by purple wisteria.

Introduces Famous Paintings with Labels

Each picture has a label next to the artwork so you can see which artwork it is based off of. Some are well-known and others were new to me! You can show your students the originals first and they can spot these in the MousterWorks book.

Illustration of a mouse looking at a framed painting of Vermeer’s "The Milkmaid" with a plaque showing the title, artist, and year 1657.

Hidden Mice in the MousterWorks book

I also love that there are little hidden mice throughout the masterpieces. They are super cute and a fun extra surprise that kids can look and find throughout the book. How adorable is this floating mouse?

Two women in a rowboat watch ducklings and ducklings swim nearby, while a mouse and a large pink animal observe from the water's edge.

Onomatopoeia!

Another thing this book is awesome for is onomatopoeia! Onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like the noise it describes, such as “buzz,” “boom,” or “splash.” This is a great way to make writing more vivid and fun to read. If you are a classroom teacher and teaching about this writing concept, this would be an excellent book to illustrate onomatopoeia. Throughout the book there are words that appeal to the senses, and especially sound.

Illustration of a mouse named Pépin on a wooden floor near a painting labeled "Ryukyuan Dancer and Musicians." Text reads, "BOOM BOOM rat-a-tat!" and "Before Pépin can answer, he is distracted by a group of musicians.

A close-up of a children's book page with text describing sounds like "clip clop," "WOOF!," "plonk," and "SPLASH!!!" as characters explore a landscape.

An Interview with Angela Hawkins

If you are interested in learning about the process of writing and illustrating her children’s book, keep reading!

1. What inspired you to write MousterWorks?

The seed was planted in late 2020 when I painted Las Meninas (Diego Velasquez) in my style—just for fun. At the last minute, I added in two mice before sharing it with a critique group. Our group leader saw my enthusiasm for fine art and suggested a personal challenge: Reinterpret 52 Masterpieces in one year—one each week—with two hidden mice as the underlying theme.Voila! MousterWorks was born.

But if you dig deeper MousterWorks origins began years earlier when my mom brought home a book on art history. I was maybe five years old, and I admired paintings by artists like Vermeer, Gainsborough, and Renoir. My favorites featured little girls like me. My absolute favorite was Velasquez’s depiction of the Infanta Margarita. I loved her dress so much! And my mind buzzed with questions about the paintings: Who were all the people around the princess? What was the milkmaid making? And why were so many people at the park?

An illustrated children’s book spread shows mice looking at framed paintings; one is of a girl playing with sand, the other depicts a park picnic scene with people and dogs.

2. Do you have a favorite image from the book?

Maybe Primavera (Botticelli) or A Sunday Afternoon (Seurat) or Mr. and Mrs. Andrews (Gainsborough) or Woman with a Parasol (Monet) or Tang Yin’s Title Unknown or Kept In (Henry) or . . .

As you can see, that’s a hard question to answer! But I also really loved illustrating the last page when Cosette and Pépin make their own art.

3. How did you choose the artwork to include in the book?

That was tricky because I had so many MousterWorks paintings to choose from. I wanted to include art that encouraged readers to look for a long time, and to ask questions. I also wanted to represent artists from many cultures and by both men and women. Then I had to make sure the art fit into the story. Which meant I didn’t use many of my very favorites! (Like Las Meninas.)

Two mice observe framed paintings of women and musicians in traditional attire while text narrates their experience at an art exhibit.

4. Do you have any activity ideas or companion projects that go along with MousterWorks for classrooms or home use?

Yes! I wanted the picture book to be a mostly visual feast with brief text to inspire questions for the youngest readers—exactly how I enjoyed art when I was small. But for anyone eager to learn more, I created a tandem website: MousterWorks.com. It’s brimming with info about the art and artists, coloring pages, activities, and more.

5. Did you have a favorite children’s book growing up that influenced your writing?

Frog and Toad (Arnold Lobel) books might be my ultimate favorites. I love how real both characters are—especially Toad. The situations they find themselves in are so true to life (“We must stop eating!” cried Toad, as he ate another). And I love how matter-of-fact Lobel is when he tells each story.

Although I didn’t think about Frog and Toad while writing MousterWorks, I definitely tried to keep Cosette and Pépin’s characters in mind while writing, just like Lobel did so beautifully. I often considered the questions they might ask each time they examined a painting. Cosette loves pretty things and—like Toad—Pépin never forgets his tummy! Which shows how we all see what we want when looking at art!

Three mice look at a large framed painting of a woman and child in a field, while one mouse runs down a hallway; text is printed on the left page.

6. What is your background in art, writing or education?

Like most kids, I drew and colored all the time. My brothers and I were homeschooled for many years, and our curriculum included copying images from coloring books.

I moved on to drawing from real life after reading Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (Betty Edwards). I became quite good at drawing what I saw, but struggled to draw characters from different angles and perspectives. Then I found the Big Book of Cartooning (Bruce Blitz) and learned how cartoonists do this. Since then, I’ve worked to make my characters feel alive using Blitz’s tricks. I’ve also learned a lot from online classes at SVSlearn.com.

Another part of my homeschool curriculum was to write daily in a journal. I loved writing about my own life and stories I made up. Today, I have more than 50 journals! I later earned an English degree at BYU with an emphasis on creative writing. I always thought it would be amazing to have a book published—and that dream came true!

An illustrated children's book spread shows mice indoors watching two girls in a boat on a pond with ducks, while another mouse walks toward a staircase on the right.

7. What was your process like for writing and publishing this book?

I first had to decide what the story would be about. Since I hid two mice in each painting, a mouse family visiting an art museum fit perfectly. A friend who taught art history to kids also suggested focusing on senses, so I started the picture book with that in mind.

Next, I chose which paintings to use, researched art museums, and sent Pépin and Cosette exploring in a 32-page book dummy (basically a first draft of what the final book could look like). I sent it to several publishers. Sandra Sutter, editor at Gnome Road Publishing, thought it had potential. It didn’t have much of a plot at the time, so Sandra encouraged me to find one. Since Pépin loves to eat, I decided to send him on a quest to find cheese in the art!

I spent a lot of time rewriting the story until my critique group, Sandra, and I felt it was just right. And of course, after Gnome Road bought the book, I had to finish painting it. It took about one year to do this. You can learn more about what that process looked like here.

8. What’s next? What projects are you working on at the moment?

I’m currently finishing up the illustrations for another book through Gnome Road—Stories by Sea: A Lighthouse Library’s Journey by Jessica Iwanski. Her words are wonderful. I hope my art will also be beautiful and informative. 🙂 I’ve also created another dummy for MousterWorks sequel. If MousterWorks sells well, hopefully we can publish that one too!

Thank you, Angela, for sharing with us about your background and process for writing your book. Check out the MousterWorks children’s book!