Young Fredle

Amazon.com Review Amazon Best Books of the Month, January 2011 : Award-winning author Cynthia Voigt's brave little mouse, Fredle, embarks on a remarkable journey of self discovery after he is pushed out of the house and must go it alone in the great outdoors. Fredle's whole world is new and its strangeness is both terrifying and thrilling. With courage and the help of some field mice, Fredle quickly learns that he is capable of adapting to his new circumstances and relishes the beauty of the stars, the taste of water from a blade of grass, and his freedom. When Fredle makes his way back into the house, he has learned to see opportunity instead of challenges and realizes he has his own definition of home.-- Seira Wilson From School Library Journal Gr 3-5-It was a Peppermint Pattie that was Fredle's undoing. A kitchen mouse who was already too curious for his own good (his mother admonishes, "Curiosity killed the cat. Think about what a terrible monster curiosity must be, if it can kill a cat"), Fredle becomes ill from consuming too much chocolate and is pushed out of the family's nest. The Missus traps him and releases him outside, a terrifying place for a creature with no familiarity with grass and sky, let alone raptors, snakes, and raccoons. Fredle's adventures and attempts to return home (and what is home, anyway?) are chronicled in a way that makes readers begin to grasp what it must be like to be a mouse, and the struggle to understand where he fits in. The allure of the world versus the beauty of belonging is just one of the many complex issues addressed in this engaging story about a plucky little mouse who, after his adventures, returns to his family and sets out to change things for himself and others like him.-Kathy Kirchoefer, Prince Georges County Memorial Library System, New Carrollton, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. Cynthia Voigt crafts a novel about discovery, perspective, and the meaning of home--all through the eyes of an affable and worried little mouse. Fredle is an earnest young fellow suddenly cast out of his cozy home behind the kitchen cabinets--into the outside. It's a new world of color and texture and grass and sky. But with all that comes snakes and rain and lawnmowers and raccoons and a different sort of mouse (field mice, they're called) not entirely trustworthy. Do the dangers outweigh the thrill of discovery? Fredle's quest to get back inside soon becomes a wild adventure of predators and allies, of color and sound, of discovery and nostalgia. And, as Fredle himself will come to understand, of freedom.From the Hardcover edition Fredle, a young mouse cast out of his home, faces dangers and predators outside, makes some important discoveries and allies, and learns the meaning of freedom as he struggles to return home