Available:*
Library | Material Type | Item Barcode | Shelf Number | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Avon-Washington Township Public Library | Juvenile Intermediate Book Hardback | 120791000545379 | J I KIN | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Flora, the world's most educated mouse, saves her family during a crisis.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 4Charming and satisfying, this story should appeal to many small folks moving from easy readers to chapter books. From a rumpled, rather inept father mouse and a very sharp mother mouse whose efficiency is a bit abrasive to our heroine Flora, each tiny character is engaging. Flora decides early in life to take advantage of her environment. From a safe hiding spot in her first-grade classroom home, she learns to read along with the children. When her siblings go off to make their way in the world, she continues her education. Her acquired skills allow her to warn her family when poison is placed in the school after a careless brother leaves mouse droppings on the head mistress's class register. She meets a handsome white mouse, survives a suitable number of harrowing experiences, and saves her family yet again after they move to an unsafe haystack. Fisher's black-and-white sketches aptly capture the characters' essential mouseness while illuminating their slightly anthropomorphic individuality. King-Smith's many fans, and those brought to the shelves by the movie Babe, won't be disappointed by this well-crafted tale.Jody McCoy, Casady School, Oklahoma City (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Of all the mice occupying the schoolhouse, only young Flora is interested in eavesdropping on the lessons taught to human children. Little by little, she begins to make sense out of the black scrawls in books. Realizing the benefits of education (which includes recognizing the word ``poison'' on a bag of pellets), Flora refuses to leave her place of study when her family decides to migrate to the field. Flora is lonely until a handsome white mouse named Buck enters the scene. But before long her family returns, in need of Flora's teaching. Both eager and reluctant readers will relish Flora's quest to become educated as well as her amusing exchanges with her scruffy, tailless father, Ragged Robin; her no-nonsense mother, Hyacinth; and fastidious, nearsighted Buck, all of whose traits are hilariously embellished in Fisher's imaginative illustrations. As always, King-Smith's lovable animal characters reveal truths about human nature. His rendition of Flora as a misunderstood scholar is as charming as his portrayal of Babe the gallant pig. Ages 7-10. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Living in a schoolhouse introduces mouse Flora to the joys of learning. After she learns to read, she is able to save her family from the exterminator and convinces them of the value of education. King-Smith combines human qualities and animal habits with his usual charm and humor. Flora and her less-than-perfect family are appealing, and Fisher's illustrations show them off to good effect. From HORN BOOK 1995, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
As usual, King-Smith (Harriet's Hare, p. 471, etc.) gives readers a children's book that's everything it should be. Written in a warm voice that makes jokes sound like explanations, and with a sense of adventure so infectious that readers will follow the plot wherever it leads, this is a grand piece of entertainment. Flora, who lives with her family in a schoolhouse, learns to read with the kindergartners. In a string of novelistic episodes she takes her first steps toward literacy; when an exterminator leaves poison all over the school, Flora saves her parents because she can read the label. She also protects their future when she teaches them not to leave their droppings about. A family drama, romance, comic characterizations, philosophical speculations on the subject of education--it all adds up to a very happy ending. Fisher's pointed black-and-white illustrations are perfectly pitched to the sharp text. (Fiction. 7-10)
Booklist Review
Gr. 3-5. In King-Smith's latest, a mouse uses her newfound reading skills to save her illiterate parents from extermination. By reading a warning on the package, pretty school mouse Flora prevents her illiterate parents from eating the little blue pellets that have been placed throughout the school by an exterminator. Flora's love of learning proves contagious, and soon she is a student by day and a teacher by night. With his usual blend of wit, humor, and lively dialogue, King-Smith spins another endearing, vital animal tale, proving once again that he is a master storyteller. With a heroic main character that will surely remind kids of the lovely gray spider in Charlotte's Web, this is a fine book for instilling in children the importance of reading. (Reviewed Oct. 15. 1995)0786800364Lauren Peterson