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Mice in Children's Books: A History

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Mice Rule! Read the history of mice, see our lovely selection of children's books about mice, and you'll soon see why . . .

I started this lens to celebrate the wonderful children's books that have included mouse characters over the years. From Stuart Little to Martin the Warrior of Redwall, mice have got what it takes!

In the Runt Farm series, two extra-smart mice named Cletus (male) and Tooth (female) become like parents to the runts, who claim an abandoned barn and make it their very own home. Later they must rescue Tooth's Cousin Clovis, a mouse artist, from the wicked halls of NAARF (sinister hint: it's a lab). The mice are our readers' favorite characters. In fact, once we showed a book-in-progress to a group of kids to see how they liked it, and their main comment was, "Could it have more mice?" Good thing there are so many great books for children that feature mice (or a mouse). In case you had doubts, this lens is proof positive.

And now for a bit of mouse history . . .

This is the stuff of legend. I mean, here are the facts.

You might think it's odd to write a history of mice. But I have set out to celebrate children's books about mice, and wanted to include some historical facts. But one often finds that a certain group is missing from the history books. Mice happen to be one such group. So I felt I must do my small part to correct this omission. Here goes . . .

Many centuries ago, the empire of mice was located in Asia when someone decided it would be a good idea to expand their territory throughout Europe. This didn't take long, since mice breed like rabbits (mice produce six to ten litters of cute baby mice continuously throughout the year). In the 1500s, mice stowed away on explorers' ships and soon began to take over places like Florida and Latin America. Before long the northern shores of North America also became home to new generations of these furry little pioneers.

"How did they survive those rugged, ragged days hiding for months on seagoing ships?" you might ask. And it would be a very good question. For starters, a mouse can jump down from a towering height of 12 feet without getting hurt! That's as high as two gym teachers, if you stand on the other one's shoulders! (in other words, way up there)

Not impressed by those mouse facts?

Listen to this . . .

A mouse can eat 8 pounds of food in a single year. That leads to about 36,000 mouse droppings a year. Pretty amazing. Taken together, all of these traits could easily account for the survival of those Early American Mice. Plus, if you look at mouse urine under a blacklight, it glows. That alone would be enough to make larger mammals keep their distance. Sure, I know blacklights hadn't been invented back in the 15th century. But I digress from my original purpose: the history of mice.

So that's how mice conquered the barns and kitchen cabinets of the world. Over the years mice made sure they stayed plentiful, tough, and awfully darned cute. Admiring these early pioneers, authors have penned many fine children's books covering the exploits of mice. Here is some of the fine literature that immortalizes these hardy (and adorable) creatures.

Well, that was a little hard to believe . . .

(And so begins our unit on MOUSE FICTION!)

While we're on the subject of children's books about mice, I must say a word about FICTION. Fiction is the art of making something up that is so outlandish you can't possibly get in trouble for creating it. If you write it down and add a lot of details (like different places and characters) it's even better. Change all your friends and family into mice, give them new names, and you're done. You have now contributed to the time-honored genre of Mouse Literature for Children. Of course, I don't necessarily recommend this approach, but I'll bet a lot of children's books about mice started out this way.

Below you'll see clearly that in middle grade novels and chapter books, mice rule. In picture books, too, mice stand front and center. As you'll see in my suggestions for good reads in chapter books, mice star in every selection. When you're browsing the aisles (real or virtual) for children's books, mouse characters make for winning reading. In addition to the charming squirrel, cat, duckling and rabbit who inhabit the Runt Farm chapter books, mice almost equal them in number! So many works of children's fiction contain mouse characters: chapter book series, picture books, and even board books for the tiniest young readers. It's impossible to read too many children's books about mice. Try it, and see for yourself.

Great children's books starring mice

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More great mouse books for kids . . .

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More classic kids books featuring mice . . .

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The Tale of Despereaux: Book Trailer

Books about mice are so cool -- some people can't resist making movies of their tales (oops). Enjoy!
Tale of Despereaux - Trailer in iHD™
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curated content from YouTube

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Amanda Lorenzo's Blog

Hats On!

This is where Amanda Lorenzo, author of the Runt Farm series, keeps readers up on family-friendly activities, kidlit news, children's book events, and a host of other fascinating stuff, including mice: Watch for Rube Goldberg inventions that would make Cletus's mouth water, and musical amazements that will make you laugh in your sleep . . .
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Do you have a comment or suggestion for a children's mouse book I haven't included here? Should we welcome books about all rodents (even rats)? I'd love to hear what you think of this lens. Be my guest!

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RuntFarmSeries

Amanda Lorenzo is the author of the Runt Farm series -- snappy little illustrated chapter books for ages 6-10 that feature a nontraditional family of animals.... more »

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