Cynthia Voigt crafts a novel about discovery, perspective, and the meaning of home—all through the eyes of an affable and worried little mouse. Fredle is an earnest young fellow suddenly cast out of his cozy home behind the kitchen cabinets—into the outside. It's a new world of color and texture and grass and sky. But with all that comes snakes and rain and lawnmowers and raccoons and a different sort of mouse (field mice, they're called) not entirely trustworthy. Do the dangers outweigh the thrill of discovery? Fredle's quest to get back inside soon becomes a wild adventure of predators and allies, of color and sound, of discovery and nostalgia. And, as Fredle himself will come to understand, of freedom.
"Move over, Stuart Little."
—Kirkus (starred review)
"The adventure is gripping . . . this is a writer at the top of her form, warm without sentimentality, wise without pretension."
—The Horn Book (starred review)
"Compelling . . . readers will identify with the universal conflict at the heart of Fredle's journey—even as he longs for home, he enjoys the newfound freedom."
—Publishers Weekly