I read this book with my class as a novel study. I read it along with my class, figuring an another like E.B. White makes it hard to go wrong. Honestly, I thought it was just okay. I played like I was very enthusiastic for my students, but I didn't think the story was great. The chapters don't compel you to go on to find out what happens in the next chapter because scenarios pretty much get resolved in each chapter.
Each chapter is a vignette. We really enjoyed the story of Stuart getting caught in the blind. We also got a kick out of the parents concerns about Stuart being self-conscious about being a mouse. They ban all references to "mice" in family conversation; they even tear the song "Three Blind Mice" from the nursery songbook. A theme starts to run through a few chapters with a bird named Margalo, but the bird flies away, Stuart sets off to find her, and that part of the story is never resolved. He also meets a girl, Harriet, who is small like him. He's quite taken by her, but his planned date doesn't work out and it pretty much ends there.
When we finished the book there were a number of exasperated children who said, "That's a terrible ending!"
We immediately got on the library website to see if there was a second Stuart Little book. It looks like Disney continued the story, but E.B. White didn't. He didn't even end this one very well. Not your best work Mr. White. Sorry.....we did enjoy watching the movie, after though. Not surprisingly, it's quite different from the book....I suppose they had to do something with it!
Call me weird - but I found, as I was reading, adding in commas that were missed. There were also some terribly long run on sentences. My students also had some confusion over things that are just plain old fashioned. For example, in the beginning the mother is introduced as Mrs. Fredrick C. Little. The kids said, "Her name is Fredrick?!" It took me a few minutes to realize she was introducing herself as women did in the past, with her husband's name.
Meh.
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