Lexile: 900L
Guided Reading: Q
Interest Level: Grades 3-5
Grade Level Equivalent: 5.5
I totally loved “The Mouse of Amherst”, c 1999, by Elizabeth Spires. It is a sweet and poetic book about a mouse named Emmaline who is staying in the house of the famous poet Emily Dickinson. Emmaline lives behind the wainscoting, a style of wall paneling, located behind Dickinson’s room. Before she arrived at the Dickinson household, Emmaline says that she was “nothing more than a crumb gatherer, a cheese nibbler, and a mouse-of-little purpose.” She states, “There was an emptiness in my life that nothing seemed to fill.”
The room which Emmaline occupies comes complete with a desk, paper and a quill pen. Left behind by the former tenant is a poem. It says:
Day by day and year by year,
You soon will find by living here
That words you thought you knew so well – Big ones, small ones, short ones, tall ones –
Words in every shape and size
Hold many meanings, more surprise
Than you would give them credit for!
Upon exploring Emily Dickinson’s room, Emmaline discovers Dickinson’s poetry and decides to leave a poem of her own. Surprisingly, Dickinson leaves a poem for Emmaline, starting a poetry correspondence between the two. This is a very tiny book. It only consists of 64 pages. It contains very sweet illustrations by Claire A. Nivola. Quite inspiring! I am very happy I found this book!
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