Don Freeman wrote many picture books, but he is probably best known for his books about Corduroy, the stuffed bear that belongs to a girl named Lisa. My children enjoyed the Corduroy stories, but perhaps their favorite book by Don Freeman was this one, Norman the Doorman.

Norman is a mouse who lives in the basement of the Majestic Museum of Art. He stands daily in front of a “small, well-hidden hole” and welcomes all of the art-loving mice visitors who come to the museum to see the treasures kept in the basement. Norman also acts as a guide, pointing out and explaining the artwork to cousins and strangers alike. And finally, Norman protects his art patrons from the sharp-eyed upstairs guard (human) by preemptively springing all of the traps and by keeping a sharp eye out himself for the guard and his flashlight.

The story goes on to tell of Norman’s artistic aspirations and of how he manages to enter a sculpture competition even though he’s much tinier than all of the other entrants. Norman is just an endearing and humble little mouse with a good lesson to teach the rest of us. “Each night after work he tried to create something pleasing or beautiful—perhaps a painting of Swiss cheese and crackers, or a statue.” Now, what if we all tried to create something pleasing or beautiful each day?

Don Freeman’s illustrations for his story are pleasing and beautiful themselves. Watercolor pencil drawings make Norman and his adventures as well as scenes from the museum itself a lovely sight to behold. In addition, since one of Norman’s art pieces is a sculpture made of wire, this book might be a good introduction for younger children to the idea of sculpture and mobiles. You might even want to have some wires or or pipe cleaners or other sculpting materials on hand to work with after reading Norman the Doorman. (Another book about making things out of wire is Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams.)