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“Did you think that rats do not have hearts? Wrong. All living things have a heart. And the heart of any living thing can be broken.”

This is another hit among the 4th graders, but I believe they read it in 3rd grade. There is also an animated movie and a graphic novel!

A speculative fiction novel with themes of grudges, prejudice, forgiveness, honor, coexisting, and love. It's basic plot is about a mouse falling in love with a princess.

Though it is just illustrations they are very moving and tell the whole story I would use this in a classroom to work on story telling.

The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney published in 2009. This Aesop‘s fable describes a friendship that emerges peculiarly. A rowdy mouse was up the lion from this slumber but decides though let the mouse free. Later when the lion needs a favor after being stuck in a poacher‘s net, the mouse is the one to set him free.

Notice the beautiful illustrations and attention to detail by Jan Brett

I am not too sure how I would choose to implement this into my classroom, but I do know that I would keep it in my classroom library for students to peruse at their leisure or would use it for a group read aloud with my students.

The book Town Mouse Country Mouse by Jan Brett is in the traditional literature genre. The colorful and lush greenery of the illustrations bring the story to life as if the two mouse couples were leaping off of the page. The book tells the story of the two couples that want to escape their everyday lives and whisk off to a getaway in the opposite mouses lives either the country or the town.

Not quite what I thought it would be, but exactly the book it needed to be. The tone is a bit quieter, a bit more solemn overall, but the sense of community found via the catalyst of looking after a mouse was indeed present. I didn't realize how much of the book would be centred on loss, grief, trauma; memories and nostalgia and how those can be a wound or a comfort. 1/2