Millhouse is a hairless Guinea pig with a penchant for the theatre in Natale Ghent’s latest book for young readers. Milly, as he thinks of himself, is misunderstood and by turns horribly teased or shunned by the animals – including several other Guineas, a couple of mindless gerbils, innumerable mice, and a murderous ferret. This menagerie occupies the “neglected and dusty little pet shop” where Milly finds himself following the death of his former owner, a stage actor with the unlikely name of Sir Roderick Lord Kingswagger. After spending much of the novel depressed and dispirited, Milly quite literally saves the day, and – in a trope of children’s literature – becomes a hero to all and finds a happy ending.

While Ghent’s story has many positive elements, from its sensitive portrayal of depression (even Guinea pigs get sad, it seems) to its believable treatment of bullying and the idea of self-acceptance, the narrative tends to be repetitive and the plot is rather thin. Ghent provides spot illustrations for the book (a first for the author), and one can’t help but wonder if Millhouse represents a
lost opportunity. With much of the repetitive text eliminated, the story would have worked well as an advanced-level picture book.

Still, the intended middle-grade audience will likely find Millhouse’s anthropomorphized cast of characters amusing, and the slim book serves well as a bridge to more ambitious, similarly themed classics such as Charlotte’s Web, an obvious source of inspiration.