I read this aloud with my daughter, and it was a pleasure. Rating is mine; she'd probably rate it even higher.

Star Rating: 5 stars

If you like authors like Tui T. Sutherland, Erin Hunter, Brian Jacques or Inbali Iserles, then I have a new author you should try- Lisa Fiedler. She wrote a series called Mouseheart that is in a similar vein to the authors listed above, particularly Jacques. It starts out in a pet shop owned by a man named Keep when he decides to sell his pet mouse stock to a young boy with a boa constrictor. He never suspects that the mice are smarter and more resourceful than they appear, particularly 3 mice by the names of Hopper, Pinkie, and Pup who decide they don’t want to be snake food and stage an escape. However, they get separated and Hopper is accidentally washed down a sewer drain when he enters the rainy world outside the pet shop. He lands in the subway tunnels and almost gets hit by a train but is saved at the last minute by a rat named Zucker who is dressed in clothes, carrying a sword, and standing on 2 feet. Zucker takes him to his home- Atlantia- a supposedly utopian rat city. Once there, Hopper finds out that there is a supposedly evil tribe of mouse warriors called the Mus who live deep in the tunnels and that Hopper is the perfect image of their fallen leader, Dodger. Because of this resemblance, Hopper is thrown into the middle of a struggle between the rats of Atlantia led by their emperor Titus, the Mus/rebel alliance led by Firren, and the cats led by Felina who for unknown reasons have allied themselves with Titus that will leave him questioning everything he knows and what his destiny is. Is he the Chosen One the Mus have been waiting for or is he the coward that everyone thinks that he is?

I loved this story as I found very engrossing to read. The characters were fleshed out as was the world and the storyline was interesting and made me want to turn pages. I found it reminiscent as stated of Jacques’s Redwall series as well as the American Tail and Secret of Nymph movie franchise, which are all things I loved as a child. I was never bored once in this novel! Also, this book tackles some pretty good themes, such as bravery, believing in oneself, and always doing the right thing even when it might not be the popular or the easiest thing so parents- if you are looking for a wholesome book that will keep your kids entertained and teach them a few life lessons along the way, then this is a good option.

All in all, I loved it for its entertainment value the most. It was a great story so it gets 5 stars from me! Can’t wait to get and read books 2 and 3 when I check out books from my library again!

This is not a book I would have chosen for my kid to read. But he saw it at the school library and really wants to read it, and I’m going to let him though I’d rather say no.

Interesting plot with lots of intrigue! However this book lacked depth in character and in setting. I could see the author trying to create history and depth, but something was still missing, and that something was description. The writing was solid, but also very bland. It wasn't fun to read. It was like oatmeal-- boring, but still pretty okay.

So after reading a bunch of serious books, i decided to cleanse my brain with a fun MG adventure book. just for the heck of it. Sadly, this book ended up taking me longer to finish than a lot of the ADULT books i've read recently.
Why is this? Because this book was boring. Like, really, really boring. You'd think a book about a mouse going on an adventure would be fun. But no, no it wasn't. It had three main problems.

1. The pacing. The book went along at a snails pace for the majority of it, and then rocketed at the end. Like the end was outta nowhere and came at you like a canon, without even really a satisfying resolution for the time invested. (it's leading to a second book, but not very well)
2. The characters. None of the characters really...developed or were endearing. I didn't really like a single character in this story. i wasn't rooting for anyone. I was kind of like. "oh, okay. that happened. um..yay?"
3. Tropeapalooza. Holy jesus did this story have a lot of tropes. and overdone ones to death at that. Like, i could have played adventure trope bingo with this book. Young adventurer called to action, check. evil guy who's obviously evil? check. family member who's mad at him? check. main character is an orphan? check.
it was seriously like this author just picked at random several from the big book o'tropes and wrote a story around it.

This book was worse than bad. I just didn't care. and honestly that's even worse than being bad. it was a boring, mess of a schlog.

I will give this book a bit of praise on one thing though. The illustrator was fantastic. The cover, as well as every twenty or so pages they threw in a drawing, and they all looked fantastic. My coworker said it best. The cover looks like a movie poster. And it really does. The cover looked awesome and drew me in. It's a shame that the writing couldn't live up to the art. I guess this really is a case of "Don't judge a book by it's cover." Illustrator, you're awesome. keep up the good work.

the book itself...i give a 1.5/5. I'm going to round it up to a 2 though because i save 1's for books that i hate with a fiery passion. this is more of like an ..... eh.

1.5/5 rounded up to a 2.

<3