Oh my how I love this gentle, kind, dear but not too precious book. Lynne Rae Perkins is the master of a kind of gentleness that never seeps over into platitudes or that fake saccharine sweetness that happens sometimes in books for children. Instead, her funny mice give the kind of life wisdom that feeds you like a warm stew, no matter what your age. A perfect family read aloud, there is something there that will speak to the youngest listener to the oldest reader.