Three Blind Mice By John W. Ivimey

 

About Book

Title: Three Blind Mice
Author: John W. Ivimey
Illustrator: Paul Galdone
Genre: Poetry, Fiction
Major Book Awards: No major book award
Recommended Age Range: 5 to 8 
Appropriate Grade Levels: 1st-3rd

Summary

This short story talks about the adventures of 3 mice. One day they decided to go out and roam instead of staying in their usual living space. The three mice had to face some hardships as they traveled, one of it being hunger. Luckily, they kept going and came across a farm. The begged for some bread and cheese from the farmer and he nicely gave them some crumbs. The mice ate all they could and happily danced with joy. The farmer's wife heard all this noise and decided to get her cat to chase them out! As they ran for their lives, they leaped on a plant and was scratched in the eyes by its thorn, making them blind. They continued to run to safety, but unfortunately the farmer's wife cut their tails off. Blind and tailless, the 3 blind mice came across a rabbit with magic potion. The mice were wise enough to give it a try and their sight and tails came back to life. 

Evaluation- Would I Incorporate this Book In the Classroom?

I really liked reading this book. This was obviously my first time so I was not expecting such a story. Most children books are pretty "innocent," so it was shocking at least for me to read that the mice became blind from the thorns and had their tails cut off by a knife. But I do see myself reading this book and doing an activity in class [1st-3rd grade]. This book is for sure different from a lot of stories, so it'll be interesting to read it to students. As the mice went on an adventure and stumbled upon many things in the story, they in turn felt many different emotions. In the beginning of the story, they were pretty excited to go out, then in the middle of the story they became hurt and blind, and finally at the end they were happy again. This will be a great book to teach students about emotions. The mice in the story experienced a rollercoaster of emotions and during a read aloud, the students can simply draw the facial expressions the mice may feel as we read. Or I can stop them and ask them what they think the mice feels.