Isabelle's teacher is reading the "Tales of Dimwood Forest" series out loud in school. Isabelle really dislikes them. She said she would give the whole series 0 stars, but then after a little pressing, she relented and said 1 star because the books do get better.
I tried to get her to articulate what she doesn't like about the books, but it wasn't easy. I had to ask leading questions, and then I don't know if I was influencing her answers by prompting her with ideas. From what I can gather, she seems to not like the whole idea of anthropomorphized animals. I remember having to read The Wind in the Willows in fourth grade, and not really liking it, plus I tried to read Watership Down some time in college, I think, and could never get into that book, either. (It's still on my to-read list.) So I think I know what she means. She also just says it's boring.
I had never even heard of this series, so I figured I'd read it myself and see what Isabelle was complaining about. I thought this book, the first in the series, was alright. It's about a country mouse named Ragweed who wants to see the world. Leaving his family and the comforts and safety of home behind, he heads to a city called Amperville. There he meets a city mouse named Clutch who shows him the ways of the city.
The writing style was descriptive, but not simplistically matter-of-fact. I liked that this book was actually more elegantly written than I would have expected for a children's book, but I do wonder if that contributed to Isabelle's impression of the book being boring.
I liked the enthusiasm and bravery of all the main characters - Ragweed, Clutch, and even Blinkers. I thought it was cute that the country mice had plant-related names, while the city mice had car-related names. I also liked that there were any number of positive lessons a reader could take away from the book. "Explore the world and see what's out there." "Don't be afraid to go beyond your comfort zone." "Every life has challenges, just keep persevering." "Respect and celebrate differences." "Stick up for yourself, and don't let others push you around."
Silversides, the antagonist of the story, was actually a pretty interesting character, for a cat. Since this is a children's book, I at first took for granted that Silversides was supposed to be "the bad guy", like how the wolf is "the bad guy" in The Three Little Pigs or Little Red Riding Hood. Wolves are wolves, they need to eat, that's just how they are. Cats hate mice, and that's just how it is, right? But the book gave us examples of cats who do like mice, and we kept seeing glimpses of the girl's cruel and unfair treatment of Silversides - she basically transferred any love she used to have for her cat to her new pet mouse. I really sympathized with Silversides, and I wonder if another message of the book might be, "Treat each other kindly, and don't feed the cycle of hate."
I can appreciate the intended humor regarding Clutch's use of slang, but the overuse of "like", "Know what I'm saying?" and "dude" did irritate me. I was disappointed when Ragweed adopted the lingo, too. I also thought that the potential for a love triangle was a bit much, but then again, I am always down on superfluous romance in books and movies.
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