This favorite story is a piece of lighthearted historical fiction of the “talking rodent” subgenre, from Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator and Newbery Medal-winning author Robert Lawson.
The narrator, Amos the mouse, is humorously conceited as he tells how he and Benjamin Franklin collaborated in inventing the Franklin stove, how Franklin played a dirty trick on him during his experiments with electricity, and how he led a revolution of mice at the French court. He also slyly suggests that if he hadn’t gone with Franklin to England, the crisis between England and her colonies may not have erupted into the Revolutionary War. Full of humorous incidents and interesting historical detail, it’s a fun and educational book for kids and it doesn’t talk down to them, either.
I am informed there is a similar story called Paul Revere and I, by the same author.
