Recently I've begun reading longer books to my 4-year-old son. After he read a beginning reader book about Stuart Little to me, based on the movie, he asked if there was a longer book about Stuart. We went on a trip to the library and hunted down E B White's first children's novel, Stuart Little.

I'd never read Stuart Little as a child, but had read Charlotte's Web by the same author, and found it to be wonderful. I flipped through this book and saw that there was an illustration on every page (which is helpful when reading a long book to a small child) and then explained to my son that this would be a very different story than the movie he'd seen, or the little book he'd read.

The Story
The book, in a nutshell, is the adventures of a little mouse somehow born into a normal family. He's only 2 inches tall, but behaves just like a very small human being. His family loves him and have made many adjustments to their home and to their daily lives to accommodate their tiniest family member. Stuart has many adventures in and around his home, until one day he gets very upset and decides to leave home, never to return. He has a few more adventures, and then the book ends abruptly.

Age Range
At about 130 pages (depending on edition) this chapter book is meant for middle readers, or for parents to read to their children. There is a small pen-and-ink picture on almost every page, which helps to keep my 4-year-old's attention.

Even though it's a classic...
I was really disappointed with this book. The character of Stuart is fussy, stuffy, whiny, and unappealing. He's not lazy, and he is inventive, but he's snobbish, pouty and very particular about everything. He reminds me a little bit of Niles Crane off of the television show Frasier. He's not a character to admire or emulate in general, and I didn't really like sharing him with my son.

My son didn't notice anything wrong with Stuart's character, but he was very upset that Stuart never returned to his family. He kept saying things like "But they'll never see him again?" and "They don't know what happened to him!" I explained to my son that I really didn't like the ending either, and that's maybe why they made a movie and some new books where Stuart Little stays where he belongs with the family that loves him.

What We Did Like
The book is well-written and easy to read to your child. The many illustrations give them something to look at while they're listening. A few of Stuart's adventures are pretty entertaining (though hardly believable). My son enjoyed Stuart's little gas-driven car, and the boat race scene, and he enjoyed hearing about the little inventions and innovations the Little family came up with to enable Stuart to live safely among them.

Final Thoughts
This is a fast and vivid read with lots of great illustrations(depending on the edition), but there are so many better stories we can share with our children both old and new. Even E. B. White has much better offerings for our kids than this story. I can't recommend it.

Recommended: No