Little Mouse and the Big Red Apple

Author: A.H. Benjamin

Title: Little Mouse and the Big Red Apple

Illustrator: Gwyneth Williamson 

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: Friendship and Sharing

Theme: Doing the right thing, to include sharing, can be very self-rewarding.


Primary and secondary characters: Primary- The Little Mouse with the Apple, Secondary- The frog, the tortoise, and the mole.


Award(s) date of publication: None, 2001


Publishing Company: Scholastic Inc.

Brief Summary and how I would use this book with students: Little Mouse and the Big Red Apple is about a little mouse who comes across an apple. He is very hungry and cannot wait to eat the apple once he gets home. Yet, on the way home the apple gets in different situations that the mouse needs help retrieving, such as getting stuck in a log. Three different individuals come along to help on three separate occasions. Each time the mouse thanks them but continues on saying to himself that he does not want to share with others. One the mouse finally gets the apple up a huge hill and arrives at his house the apple begins to roll back down the hill. Once the mouse gets to the bottom of the hill he finds the three individuals who helped him earlier in the book. They tell the mouse how nice it was of him to send the apple back down for them. Instead of getting angry the mouse smiles and says "Don't mention it. Isn't that what friends are for?". This book can be used in my classroom to talk about the topic of sharing with others. Mouse learns from the situation that sharing with the others was the right thing to do and it makes him feel rewarded for "accidentally" giving the others the apple. I would continue in using this in one of my lessons by stating that sometimes doing the right thing, especially when it comes to sharing, can have a much more positive reaction and make the classroom environment a much more positive place to learn.