Book Review: Young Fredle by Cynthia Voigt.

Young Fredle is a mouse that likes to push the rules a bit. Not as much as his friend Axle, but still he's always asking questions with the word "why" in them. His parents and siblings think he's a bit of a one-off. His life changes forever when he follows Axle's lead and fills up on a Peppermint Pattie they find abandoned in the kitchen. They eat too much and both end up getting sick. Now, you would think that having big families would be a good thing, but there's very little love lost in mouse families. When a mouse gets sick or too weak to take care of itself, the other mice push them out of the nest into the middle of the kitchen floor. There they are either eaten by the housecat or discarded in the garbage by the human inhabitants. Fredle doesn't really have a concept of Death. He merely calls the passing of a mouse "Went". For mice, the maxim of "out of sight, out of mind" is so especially true. Fredle's family abandons him and he is picked up by the woman of the house and carried outside. When he recovers from his stomach ache, Fredle finds himself in an unknown world. He had never been out of the house, content to live out his days without ever seeing grass or the sky, or feeling the wind or the sun in his face. Fredle thought he knew all the rules of survival but finds he now has to start from scratch!

In some ways, this novel reminded me of Orwell's 1984, mainly because of the slave drone mentality of the house mice. They have no ambition or creative thoughts. They just do what they do, their lives ones of repetitive behavior with no joy or discovery. They are perfectly content to walk in the shadows of the dim kitchen until they die or are pushed out of the nest simply for being different. Fredle's soul is not suited for that kind of life. What appears to be the most dangerous event of his life also ushers in the most positive life-changing catalyst movement.

As with all animal stories, you can read this book as a work for kids or see some deeper allegorical content and social commentary. I was thoroughly charmed by this novel.

My Grade: B

Young Fredle by Cynthia Voigt
Illustrated by Louise Yates
Published by Knopf 
$16.99