Rating: Needs Parent Supervision

Reading Level: Mid Elementary, Late Elementary, Middle School

A mouse makes friends with a dog at a shelter who has trouble getting adopted. Beware: this book gives you so much empathy for animals in shelters that your heart may lead you to adopt a new pet!

Possible Concerns:

  • Prayer to…. The mice say grace before supper. They pray to “the great mouse.” We can have a conversation about how the mice don’t know God, one God, created everyone and everything, who is not a mouse. I’d classify this as ignorant mice, not a pagan agenda. This reminds me of Paul on Mars Hill.
  • Forgiveness. One mouse has trouble forgiving another mouse for endangering their lives. This could be a great conversation about how it can be tough to forgive and what true forgiveness might look like.

Things I liked:

  • Friendship. The dog and mouse have a sweet friendship.

The reading level is about mid-elementary, but it’s a long book with many short chapters (much like The Wild Robot), so I’d suggest 3rd grade or older.

See also my review of Dogtown, a book by the same authors that I rated for my bookshelf.