Mousenet by Prudence Breitrose stars Megan a lonely girl who helps to change the world. Megan is visiting her uncle after leaving an isolated island that she lived on with her mother when her uncle gives her his new invention the thumbtop, a miniature computer. The mouse nation who has been watching this development of the thumbtop soon gets in touch with Megan after she moves to Washington State with her father. Megan and her mouse friends must work to bring thumbtops to the mouse nation while also keeping the mouse nation secret from humans.
I loved this book. It was fantastic and I couldn't wait to get back to it to read more. Megan was a great girl who was not afraid to be herself. I loved all the mice and the whole idea of the mouse nation. The subplot involving Megan trying to fit into a new environment and a new family was interesting and something that kids could relate too.
Appropriateness: I would recommend this book to kids 9-14 and would also recommend this as a read aloud as the story is interesting enough to appeal to adults as well as kids. The only negative in terms of kids liking this book is the length. The ARC was around four hundred pages and while the print was larger than normal and there were a few pictures it is longer than many young readers will be able to handle. There is no adult content in the story and the only questionable behavior is some minor breaking and entering and lying to parents that is related to the fantasy side of the story. While this book is primarily about a girl I think that boys would enjoy the story and would be able to relate to either Megan's cousin Joey or the male mouse characters (who are pretty awesome).
ARC Provided by Netgalley
