The Mouse's Apples

by Frances Stickley, Kristyna Litten (Illustrator)

Overview

Mouse is having a wonderful day: she's foraged four plump apples for her tea, the most she's ever found! But here comes Bear, and he's feeling especially greedy and mean. He wants every apple for himself. Mouse might have to think up a clever trick to teach Bear a lesson . . .

Learn how selfishness can be replaced by sharing with this glorious, rhyming picture book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728430164
Publisher:	Andersen Press USA
Publication date:	11/10/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	175,925
File size:	85 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	7 - 8 Years

About the Author

Frances Stickley is a primary school teacher who realized her love for writing when she was six. She is an award-winning academic, a trained chidren's literacy specialist, and a winner of the Bloomsbury and National Literacy Trust short story prize in 2017.
Kristyna Litten is a children's book writer and illustrator. She has written and illustrated several books for children, as well as created artwork for book covers and magazines. She lives in Yorkshire, England.

Editorial Reviews

2020-06-30
Mouse teaches a lesson to “the naughty bear who doesn’t share.”

While her “tummy roll[s] and rumble[s],” Mouse “scamper[s] down the hill” to forage and is lucky enough to find four delicious apples. Just as Mouse is about to take her first bite, the bear that attentive readers will have seen lurking in previous illustrations looms large. “ ‘Apples,’ boomed the bear, / ‘are my favorite tasty treat. / And I’ve been here all winter / without anything to eat.’ ” (Since apples generally ripen in summer and fall, Bear’s—or Stickley’s—sense of seasons seems grievously off.) When Mouse offers to share the apples, Bear refuses and instead threatens to eat Mouse. Instead of just yielding the apples, Mouse devises a clever plan to trick Bear, and a double-page spread divided into three horizontal panels illustrates Bear’s long journey home while Mouse is secretly getting “fat and happy” on the apples. An astonished, angry Bear soon discovers the trick, but when Mouse offers the last apple to him, Bear abruptly and unrealistically realizes how good it feels to share, and the two become friends. Alliteration (“red and rosy”; “green and gleaming”) and the potential for dramatic voices for Mouse and Bear make the book fun to read aloud, though the rhythm has a few rough spots. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at 35.6 % of actual size.)

Fun wordplay balances heavy-handed moralizing. (map) (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews