Baehr. Mouse in the House

Mouse in the House is a children's book by Patricia Baehr, with art by Laura Lydecker, published in 1994. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Mrs. Teapot has a nice life in her nice house... until a mouse comes and nibbles her book and nibbles her cake and sips her tea. The mailman advises her to get a pet, and the baker gives her a kitten, but the kitten breaks the china. The butcher then gives her a dog, but the dog digs holes in Mrs. Teapot's garden. The grocer gives her an owl, but the owl just sleeps while Mrs. Teapot filled the holes in the garden, swept up the broken china, and then flies figure-eights... but the mouse is still nibbling. The pet-store owner gives her a snake; the snake sleeps in her bed, so she doesn't get a good night's sleep. The mailman recommends a trap, but when she puts cheese in the trap, the mouse has no interest.

In the end, she sends the snake and the owl and the dog and the cat away with the mailman, and happily shares her house with the mouse.

There is a nice little story here; students might enjoy putting this into verse, or maybe they can think of some other things that Mrs. Teapot might try before she decides to share her house with the mouse, giving the mouse a book of his own, a cake of his own, and his own cup of tea too.

I'm not quite sure how to describe this chain tale type; I think I'll call it a chain of problems and solutions. In this case, though, the additions to the chain are solutions to the original problem, rather than being solutions to the problem caused by each new item. That makes it less of a chain, but it's still fun to read, especially because the author develops the story cumulatively, reminding us each time of the accumulation of (failed) solutions to problem of the mouse-in-the-house.