Neither of them can imagine how a mouse could ever help a whale, but, of course, the need arises. When they part near the shore of Amos’ home, they realize they will probably never see each other again, but Amos tells Boris to remember that if he ever needs help he’ll be more than glad to give it. Amos admired the bulk, the grandeur, the power, the purpose, the rich voice, and the abounding friendliness of the whale. On the way back to Amos’ home, “They became the closest friends possible.”īoris admired the delicacy, the quivering daintiness, the light touch, the small voice, the gemlike radiance of the mouse. Boris, the whale, says he would consider it a privilege to rescue Amos because no other whale has ever had such an opportunity. The tiny mouse is treading water in the midst of the immense ocean.Īfter managing to stay afloat throughout the night, he’s starting to wonder what it will feel like to drown when a whale looms up and asks what sort of creature Amos is.

One night, in a phosphorescent sea, he marveled at the sight of some whales spouting luminous water and later, lying on the deck of his boat gazing at the immense, starry sky, the tiny mouse Amos, a little speck of a living thing in the vast living universe, felt thoroughly akin to it all.Īmos is so overwhelmed by “the beauty and mystery of everything” that he falls into the sea, his boat goes on without him, and he never sees it again. Steig’s use of language draws more vivid pictures, for me, than his illustrations, as captivating as they are in their simplicity. When the book arrived, I was glancing through it, skimming the text when my eye caught the description of Amos, a mouse, using “his most savage strength” to launch the boat he had built by hand. It was on my daughter’s wishlist for her children’s library. That was the extent of my knowledge of Steig till this week when I bought Amos and Boris for my grandson’s birthday. I also remember feeling that the cover of The Amazing Bone is a bit creepy flashbacks to childhood nightmares of wolves in the woods. I enjoyed William Steig’s Sylvester and the Magic Pebble years ago, but not so much that I set out to find everything Steig had written.

Amos and boris book