I enjoyed this short tale about a mouse going to college for two reasons. I first enjoyed the rhyming scheme used by the author. This style helps to make the tale seem less frightening at times and also adds to the fluidity of the book. In addition, the use of rhyming is pleasing to the ear when reading aloud to younger students. The last thing I enjoyed about this book were the illustrations used throughout the book. Each picture accurately depicted the words of the author which helped make the book easy to follow. When the illustrations help to complement the text, this also adds a realistic touch to the events. Although in actual reality a mouse cannot go to school, a young reader can connect that they one day could go to college like Mahalia. The overall message of this story is to follow your dreams so you can make them a reality. ( )

Review: This book is about a mouse who leaves his family to search for food but he discovers college classes. The mouse enjoyes the classes and what the students are learning in them. The professor lets the mouse join the school. The mouse takes all the classes he needs for four years to graduate. Once mouse has completed all four years he gets to graduate. His mouse family sees a newspaper article about him and discovers that he is not lost after all. His family comes and watches him graduate and they live happily ever after.

Genre: Modern Fantasy
Genre Critique: This book is a fantasy because the animals have human like characteristics. The animals wear clothing and have furnished homes. The animals can also talk and think like humans do. In real life mice do not go to college. ( )

(as viewed on Tumblebook.com) Captivating format and inspiring story. The tumblepad screen displays the illustrations and words to each page of this clever story of Mahalia, a mouse who accidentally goes to college after being zipped up inside a backpack while stealing a bite of a sandwich. As the warm voice of the narrator tells the tale, the sentence being read lights up in red. Forward, back, and pause buttons allow the reader to control the story’s pace, and each page come to life through a few sounds and slight animations: the sound of rain or a horn, the movement of a mouse scurrying across the page or balloons floating upward.

Children will delight and cheer as the mouse, Mahalia, graduates from college. They might even follow in her footsteps one day, emboldened by a little mouse with persistence, curiosity, and courage.

Young readers will need assistance in understanding some of the complex language and expressions, but plenty of context clues will guide children’s understanding. Young, gifted readers may find pleasure in the challenge of reading this story independently while treasuring the illustrations and the story of a little mouse who becomes a scholar.

Librarians and teachers alike can build a college theme around this story and introduce children to the myriad of subjects that can be studied in college.
Classroom use can also include an advanced vocabulary unit.

Vocabulary: scampered, wisteria, tormented, daunting, regime, giddily, brawny, transfixed, skittered, self-reliance, grim, studious, jubilation ( )

Actor and author John Lithgow wrote this story as part of a commencement address he delivered at Harvard University. The book also comes with a CD of that exact reading at Harvard in 2005. ( )

This is about a little mouse who lives with her family under an old Harvard Dormitory. Malihia mouse desides she wants to attend college after she accidentally finds herself in a classroom listening to a lecture.