I Wish I Had a Pet

Maggie Rudy has been making mice and their worlds for 25 years. Her father was a biologist and her mother and grandmother were artists, so her childhood was full of nature outings and making things. She spent part of her childhood living in England, where she encountered her first felt mice in a Lancaster toyshop, and visited Beatrix Potter’s farm in a formative third-grade field trip. Her work stars mice and other small woodland creatures, and is firmly grounded in the natural world. She says, “I believe that young children have an innate affinity with nature and it’s my desire to kindle and sustain that connection through humor, appealing characters and detailed,gorgeous pictures”. After the publication of each book, the completed scenes travel with Maggie to be displayed in bookstore windows, where they are a major attraction with children and their parents. Maggie works in her home studio in the woods in Portland, Oregon, where her creatures and sets will soon overtake her house.