Read an Excerpt
Mia the Mouse
Fairy Animals of Misty Wood
By Lily Small Henry Holt and Company
Copyright © 2013 Hothouse Fiction Ltd.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-62779-363-6
CHAPTER 1
A Good Little Mouse
Deep in the Heart of Misty Wood, there was an oak tree so tall its branches seemed to touch the sky. Its leaves were as green as emeralds, and they loved to dance in the breeze. The oak tree's thick, knobby roots stretched deep into the soil and held the tree steady.
If you looked carefully, in between the tree roots, behind a cluster of tall green ferns, you would see a hole leading down to a cozy burrow. And if you looked very carefully indeed, you would see a little mouse sitting on the grass next to the hole. The mouse's name was Mia, and she lived in the burrow with her mom and dad, her grandma, and her four baby brothers and sisters.
Mia was a Moss Mouse — one of the fairy animals of Misty Wood. Her beautiful fairy wings were transparent, just like a dragonfly's, and when the sunshine touched them, they twinkled violet and green. Her fur was as golden as honey — except on her tummy, where it was snow white — and she had long, silky whiskers that wiggled and twirled whenever she was excited.
Mia was making a cushion from a ball of soft green moss.
"Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake!" she sang to herself as she rolled the moss along the ground and patted it into a nice round shape with her tiny pink paws.
Just like all the fairy animals of Misty Wood, the Moss Mice had a special job to do to make the wood a wonderful place to live. The mice made soft, squishy cushions out of moss and placed them all around the wood so the other fairy animals would have somewhere comfortable to sit.
"Pat, pat, pat!" Mia sang as she shaped the cushion.
"Hello, Mia!" a voice called.
There was a scrabbling noise from inside the hole, and a face with bright beady eyes and long silvery whiskers popped out. It was Mia's dad.
"I'm afraid Grandma's come down with a nasty case of the sniffles," he said. "Will you go and keep her company? Mom's busy with the babies, and I've got to go out and collect some more moss for our cushions."
"Of course I will," Mia said.
Mia's dad gave her a twinkly-eyed smile. "You are a good little mouse! Perhaps you could tell Grandma one of your stories. I bet she would appreciate it." And with that, he jumped out of the hole, twirled his whiskers, and unfurled his wings. They glinted silver in the sun. "See you at teatime!" Mia's dad called as he flew off through the trees. He carried a big bag made from spider silk in his front paws.
Mia picked up her cushion and hurried underground. The passageway to the burrow was nice and cool and smelled of fresh earth. Mia's whiskers began to twitch. Telling stories was her favorite thing in the whole wide world. She loved it even more than making cushions.
Mia scampered into the burrow. At one end, her mom was busy feeding the babies. At the other, Grandma was tucked into her bed of soft moss.
Mia hopped over to her. Grandma was curled up in the middle of the bed with her nose peeping over the edge. Normally, Grandma's nose was pale pink, but today it was red. Mia got a little closer. Normally, Grandma's black eyes shone and there was a happy smile on her face, but today her eyes were bleary and she looked sad.
"A-a-a-a-CHOO!" Grandma sneezed when she saw Mia.
"Bless you!" said Mia. She hopped onto the cushion she'd just made and leaned her front paws on the edge of the bed. "Dad said you weren't feeling well, so I've come to keep you company."
"Ah, thank you, Mia," replied Grandma, wiping her nose on a white daisy petal. Then she sneezed again. "A-a-a-CHOO!"
"Oh, dear. You must be feeling awful," Mia said.
"Yes, I am." Grandma sighed. "My poor nose is so sore ... a-a-a-CHOO!"
Mia tilted her head to one side. "Would you like me to tell you a story?"
Grandma's eyes lit up. "Ooh, yes, please! I do love your stor — a-a-a-CHOO!"
Mia sat back on her cushion. If she could think of a really good story, Grandma might forget about her sneezes and her sore nose.
Mia's whiskers wiggled with excitement as a story began to form in her mind: "Once upon a time ... there was a caterpillar!" she started.
"A caterpillar? Well, I never," said Grandma with a loud sniff.
"And she was named Clarissa!" said Mia.
"That's a big name for a little caterpillar," said Grandma.
"Oh, but she wasn't little!" cried Mia, and her whiskers twitched and wiggled so much she had to jump down and run around Grandma's bed. "She was the biggest caterpillar you've ever seen! She was bigger than you and me and Mom and Dad and all the babies put together!"
"Goodness," said Grandma. Then she smiled. She hadn't sneezed for quite a while now. "How did she get to be so big?"
"Well ...," began Mia, jumping back onto the cushion, "Clarissa was very greedy. She ate and ate and ate, all day long."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Mia the Mouse by Lily Small. Copyright © 2013 Hothouse Fiction Ltd.. Excerpted by permission of Henry Holt and Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
