Stuart Little by E.B. White

Title: Stuart Little

Author: E.B. White

Read by:  Julie Harris

Publisher: Listening Library

Length: Approximately 1 hour and 57 minutes

Source: The Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you!

Stuart Little is a small mouse that is born to a human family (don’t think about it too much) in New York City.  He lives in his family with his parents, normal size human brother George, and their cat Snowbell.  Stuart’s parents use dollhouse items and craft other items for Stuart to have a somewhat normal life.  Stuart has a lot of adventures that could only happen to a small mouse with human characteristics.

One day he befriends Margalo, a beautiful bird.  She lives with them and rescues Stuart when he is accidentally thrown away with the trash.  As an environmental engineer, I really liked this part.  The kids were horrified that back in the “old days” New York would put their trash on a barge and dump it into the ocean.  Stuart is sure it is the end for him until his friend Margalo appears.

Stuart has other adventures such as winning a sailboat race in central part, and finding a car that he uses to drive around.  The story ends when Stuart is searching for Margalo.  He also finds a girl his size who is a human and not a mouse.  Why was Stuart born a mouse?  I still wonder.

The entire family enjoyed this story, although we were all surprised by the very abrupt ending.  I had to Google it after it ended to make sure we hadn’t missed a CD or something as it didn’t seem at all like the story had ended.

Julie Harris was a perfect audiobook narrator who brought life to the story and gave voice to the different characters.  We all enjoyed listening to her.

We listened to this audiobook as a part of our local library’s Family Reading Challenge this summer.  We ended up being lucky winners for the challenge and won four tickets to the Packer Family Night last weekend.  Unfortunately, we are a family of five and the tickets were for four so Ben and the boys had a “guys night” out with their friend Zach while Penelope and I watched a movie.

Overall, Stuart Little is a great adventure tale and a wonderful audiobook to listen to as a family.  Be forewarned that it has an abrupt ending.  I would rate this third out of E.B. White’s books with Charlotte’s Web number one and The Trumpet of the Swan at number two.