Customer Reviews

Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Alexander the mouse finds a friend to end his loneliness-- Willy the wind up mouse. When Willy is about to be thrown away, Alexander makes a selfless decision, and with the help of a magic lizard saves his friend.

This is a wonderful little story filled with magic and friendship. It can be read in such a way (with plenty of drama and mystery surrounding the lizard) so as to captivate a young reader. Its happy ending makes it a good bedtime book.

I believe that Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse by Leo Lionni is an outstanding work of children's literature. It is a Caldecott Honor Book, which I thoroughly enjoyed on several levels. When it comes to characterization, this story would definitely be appropriate for young children. Each character is easy to identify. Alexander is dark gray and a little "rough around the edges". Although when it comes to size, shape, and color he and Willy (the wind-up mouse) are similar, it is not difficult to tell them apart. Besides the obvious traits Willy possesses, such as having wheels for feet and a crank sticking out of his back, he is also a little smaller than Alexander. Willy's body is smoother as well whereas Alexander's is fairly rugged.
The whole book is told from the perspective of two tiny mice. The reader gets to see how huge and scary everyday objects, like a spoon or a broom, can be from the point of view of a mouse. The stuffed animals are enormous. The red boots appear to be mansions for the mice to play in. I especially like the illustration of Willy and Alexander standing under the kitchen table. All we see of the table is one leg and the bottom of the table cloth. There is also one of Annie's dolls laying in the background that looks absolutely gigantic in comparison to the two friends.
Lionni does a dazzling job placing "life sized" objects in the background of each scene throughout the story to make sure the reader realistically understands how minuscule the two mice are in contrast to the environment in which they live. He also uses lots of fun wild wall paper in creative ways as his artisitic media to create his illustrations.
On the page when Alexander meets Willy there are oodles of brilliant colors and exhilarating patterns. I felt like these captured the feeling of excitement Alexander was feeling to have found not only a new friend, but another mouse like himself. Most often the color red is used to represent love and passion. On the page that talks about how much Alexander and Willy grew to love one another, they are pictured playing in a pair of gigantic red boots. I believe this color was chosen purposefully to portray that passionate loving emotion. When Alexander was in his hide out all alone thinking about how envious he was of Willy, he was very sad and lonely. Most of that page is black accompanied by other dark colors such as different shades of brown. There are also some cool colors like blues and greens. These colors emote sadness and loneliness.
Lionni's text holds the reader's attention. The story is intresting without being too complex or boring. All of the observations I have written about clarify why Lionni is worthy of an award as prestigious as the Caldecott Honor. He is observably an excellent author and illustrator of children's books and undoubtedly meets all the requirements associated with producing high quility children's literature.

This is a brilliant book, with a perfect heartwarming story surrounded by imaginative and beautiful illustrations.

Alexander is a mouse with some typical mouse problems. Specifically, every time he pokes his nose out of his hiding spot, the people who live in the house throw things at him and make him feel bad about himself. He is also very lonely. When he meets Willy, a wind-up mouse owned by the daughter of the human family, he thinks he has found a friend at last. Willy and Alexander spend many nights talking about their different lives. Willy is loved by everyone in the house, although he cannot move without being wound up. When Alexander hears about a magic lizard that has the power to change him into a wind-up mouse, he thinks he is in luck. But a twist at the ending gives the reader lots to think about, in terms of being happy with the life you've got, the strings that come with dependence, and the things that we do for friendship.

I loved this book because it has touching and believable characters who seem to have more depth than the average picture book characters, and because it brings magical elements into a familiar household setting in a believable way that will have toddlers on the lookout for magical lizards and talking mice.

The picture are also terrific, a very distinctive style that gives the book a special atmosphere all its own.

Highly recommended!

We've had to read this book many, many times to our little one. The adventures of Alexander and his new friend, Willie the windup mouse is just very sweet. It teaches children about friendship, being a true friend, and also, being there to help that friend even though you may be giving up something that you want in doing so. It's very sweet how the story ends with Willie becoming a real mouse because of Alexander's unselfishness (or was it really?). Alexander has a new playmate because he was willing to give up being a windup mouse so his friend wound not go into the trash. Just a very cute story and, to be honest, I couldn't resist saying, "here Lizard Lizard" when coming to the part of the lizard (remember the Taco Bell commercials with the dog saying that regarding Godzilla?). It made for a great laugh by all and now, my little one always asks me to say that when we come to that part of the story. Great imagination builder.

Collages with artful humor and heart, ALEXANDER AND THE WIND-UP MOUSE shares a tale between two different kinds of mice whose developing friendship has brought forth a magical miracle that makes life and dream of friendship come true in this Caldecott Honor winning book of Leo Lionni's best-loved mouse classic. Surprise after surprise, my kids and I read with wonder and rejoice with how they first met, how Alexander finally finds the purple pebble and with a change of big heart are able to dance together in the end with Willy who is both loved and free.

My son's grandma recently brought this book home from the library and we fell in love with it. It is a sweet and magical story about friendship. It was written in 1969 so I am glad to hear they have reissued it. My son is 3 and just loves it. The illustrations and text are lovely and simple.

It is a timeless story of learning self value through selflessness and the joy that can be created from an act of selflessness. It is a sweet story that can teach children about these positive traits and remind adults not to forget about them in a very stress-driven world. My children love hearing this book read over and over again. And it is a delight to me to keep rereading it.

I think that this is a great book for a young child to read, it is also a book that some older adults would probably like. I think that this is one of my favorite children's books. It has colorful, detailed pictures. It is a good story. It will keep children interested and wondering what will happen next. Alexander has a great friendly personality that kids will relate to. Alexander is lonley and wants a friend. Whenever he leaves his home to go find some crumbs to eat, the family that lives in the house catches him and chases him back in his hole in the wall. One day he runs into a wind-up mouse named Willy. He befriends this mouse and he decides that he wants to be a wind-up mouse too. He meets a lizard in the backyard and tells him his wish, the lizard tells Alexander to bring him a purple pebble. So Alexander goes on search for this pebble. He searches everywhere and finally finds one. But then he changes his mind and decides that he wants Willy to become a real mouse. So he wishes then goes back to his house. When he gets in his hole in the wall, he sees another mouse and asks who he is. He discovers that it is Willy, so they then live happily ever after and stay friends. I really liked this book out of any others I have read. Thats why I give it four stars and reccomend it to anyone who is looking for a book to read to their child, or to read themselves.

I thought this was a very sweet and wonderful book about a mouse that was lonely and finally made a friend, but by the end of the book, both my 4 year old and 6 year old were in tears.

They were so heartbroken that the toy mouse was going to be thrown out that they didn't even understand that the toy mouse became a real mouse and the two friends could finally be together. I think they imagined their own precious stuffed animals as the toy mouse and the thought of throwing their own friends out was too much for them.

I say this because if you have children who empathize and anthropomorphize their stuffed animals/toys, this might not be the best bedtime story. At least save it for the mornings when they aren't tired and easily able to move to tears.

*** Update ***

It's been two weeks and my kids have both mentioned this book. It stuck with them. They now understand that the mouse was far better off being made real and that the two real mice have each other. I'm now working on helping the older of my children understand about the sacrifice the real mouse made to save the toy mouse and how sometimes we have to set aside what we want to help others.

This book has many levels. If it hadn't been for the tears on the first reading, it would have gotten 5 stars from me. I love it.

I love this book so much! The story is enchanting and the characters are so lovable. The art is unique and beautiful as well. Any child would love this story. I am a big fan of all Leo Lioni works but Alexander and the Wind Up Mouse is by far the best.
As for the quality of the book, it is nicely bound and softcover but the size of the book and pages is a bit smaller than the hardcover version.