Review Detail

Buckle up for the tale of Emmie the inventive mouse. She loves tinkering and making things, so when an intruder appears in her home (a cat!) she quickly sets to work to build a series of machines to scare it off. But in vanquishing her foe, Emmie realizes that a friendship is what they both need and that great inventions help rather than harm.

This is such a cute story. Emmie's inventions are a delight to all the little inventors who like putting together creations from spare parts, broken pen springs, and bottle caps. And although the story is far from technical, it captures the creative spirit and iterative process that goes into any good design or experiment. When one idea doesn't work, it's not a failure, but rather the first step toward thinking over the problem and discovering an even better solution.

I particularly love the illustrations of Emmie's animal-inspired inventions. They're fierce and fun all at once, and make me want to try to assemble something of my own from whatever is hanging around the desk.

Pick this up for an animal story with creativity, heart, and little details in the drawings you won't want to miss.