What We're Reading- The Bookshelf of a 6 Year Old

A few months ago, I was tweeting what books The Boy and I were reading/had read together, and I recognized a pattern.

We like rodents.

Chapter book rats, picture book mice... we enjoy all kinds of scurriers.

     

The Boy and his sisters get a particulary big kick out of Seven Blind Mice. It's a beautifully illustrated, beautifully told story of, well, seven blind mice, who travel over a mountain and discover new things each day of the week... and eventually put the puzzle pieces together to discover what the mountain really is.

I'm a sucker for Don and Audrey Wood; I adore anything they do. Quick as a Cricket is my absolute favorite, but Mouse, Berry and Bear is a close second.


        

The very first chapter book The Boy and I read together, snuggled under covers, asking his daddy for one more chapter at bedtime, was my beloved Beverly Cleary's The Mouse and The Motorcycle. I loved litte Ralph as much this time around as I did when I was small. We also read Runaway Ralph, but haven't gotten around to Ralph S. Mouse. Yet.

The Secret of NIMH (that Amazon link leads to a paperback copy forjust $0.01!) was one of my very favorite books as a kid. It's full of terror and bravery and science and loyalty and a mother's love. And rats. We haven't read it together yet, but it's high on The Boy's TBR pile. And oh, what a pile it is.

Stuart Little and his bird friend Margalo's adventures were fun to read outloud. The language is a throwback to the '40s, and we learned some new words.


Our absolute favorite mouse-and-rat book thus has been Kate DiCamillo's The Tale of Desperaux (You know: "Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread"). DiCamillo's writing is incredibly descriptive, imaginative and emotionally satisfying.
I can't say the same about the movie. It was crap.



So, if you have an early-reader in your house, or know one, or have ever been one, and you (or they) have a thing for rodentia, pick up one (or some!) of these books.

But don't take my word for it!


I know there are some great literary mice out there.... which books am I leaving out?


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