Ned Mouse Breaks Away - Softcover

Wynne-Jones, Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0888995946 ISBN 13: 9780888995940

Publisher: Groundwood Books, 2004

Synopsis

Ned Mouse has been sent to jail. His crime? Writing "The government is unfair to mice!" in his spinach. But Ned does not like jail. He does not like his tiny cell. He does not like the food. And he does not look good in stripes.
"I would give my right arm to be out of here," he thinks. Thus begin his attempts to make a break for freedom. He tries digging a tunnel. He tries building an escape plane in shop class. He tries fleeing down the drain hole in the tub. Yet each time his attempts are foiled by the keeper– the big gentle guard who has the brains of a tree but who is devoted to
his job, which is to keep prisoners in their cells.
The years pass, and Ned very nearly gives up. Then one day he receives a letter from his long-lost friend Mort, who tempts him with stories of the beautiful sunrises at his house by the sea.
Filled with new determination, Ned comes up with the most daring escape plan yet. He'll mail himself to Mort, piece by piece. And all he needs for his plan to succeed is the cooperation of the gullible keeper.

About this title

About the Author

Tim Wynne-Jones is one of Canada's foremost writers for children. The author of over thirty-five books, he is a two-time winner of the Governor General's Award, as well as a two-time winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and of the Arthur Ellis Award. His short-story collections include Some of the Kinder Planets, Book of Changes and Lord of the Fries. He is also known for his Rex Zero series. Recently, he wrote the young-adult novels The Ruinous Sweep; Emperor of Any Place, which earned seven starred reviews; and Blink & Caution, which won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. Tim is also the recipient of the Edgar Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award for a Body of Work. In 2012, he was made an Officer to the Order of Canada. He lives in Perth, Ontario.

Dušan Petričić is the award-winning illustrator of more than twenty books for children. Most recently, he has illustrated Snap! by Hazel Hutchins, Invisibill by Maureen Fergus and My Family Tree and Me, which he also wrote. Mr. Zinger’s Hat, written by Cary Fagan, was selected for the 2015 TD Grade One Book Giveaway. A former professor of illustration and book design, Petričić’s work appeared for years in the New York Times, Scientific American, the Wall Street Journal and the Toronto Star. He continues to work as a political cartoonist for Politika and to illustrate for American, Canadian and Serbian magazines. He lives in Belgrade and Toronto.

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4-Ned Mouse, a political prisoner sentenced to life for writing negative things about the government (using pureed spinach), is desperate to escape jail, but his attempts are always thwarted by his dumb-as-a-post prison keeper. After 17 years, a letter from an old friend prompts him to try a daring new escape; he mails parts of himself to Morty, a few pieces at a time. He fashions replacement parts out of tin so as not to raise suspicion. All goes according to plan until most of him is residing happily by the sea with Morty, and only a tin replica is left in prison (except for his writing arm, which he had to leave behind to wrap and address the last package). The tone of this surreal story is both quirky and matter-of-fact. Readers will become so fond of this tenacious mouse with an amazing facility for tinwork that they will accept with a grin and barely raised eyebrow the idea of Ned sending off a package containing "some claws, a whisker or two, and his funny bone." The protagonist's clearly impossible tin creations, his eye-rolling comments about his keeper's mental abilities, his endless variety of far-fetched escape attempts, and even the goofy illustrations are reminiscent of Warner Bros. cartoons starring Bugs Bunny or the Roadrunner, but with more sweetness and humanity. Funny, light, and deliciously different.
Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Groundwood Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0888995946
• ISBN 13: 9780888995940
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 68
• Illustrator: Petričić Dušan