Motor Mouse

K-Gr 3—Rylant continues to create worlds of intriguing characters and fun adventures in this first title of her new series. This book contains three separate tales, each following the star character Motor Mouse and some of his friends. In the first, Motor Mouse and his friend Terry learn to try new things when the cake shop closes on Cake Friday. The second entry has Motor Mouse take a taxi to see old sights and make some new friends. In the third story, Motor Mouse and his brother Valentino must figure out how to share a large bucket of popcorn at the movies without hogging all the delicious treat. The plots are simple to follow and well paced for younger readers, the characters are enjoyable, and the life lessons are brilliantly simplified and understandable. The illustrations help to establish the personalities and the world of Motor Mouse through their lovable cartoon style. They also help to show the plot of each story, which is great for beginning readers who are still learning to read. The vocabulary is also simple and easy to understand.