Young Fredle by Cynthia Voigt

An excellent cozy little mouse book. However, this surprising book also dealt with some hefty themes. Fredle discovers that mice fear everything they do not understand. He has grown up hearing horrible stories told about those vicious mice who live in the cellar or outside. When circumstance creates the opportunity for Fredle to visit these different places, he finds mice very much like him who also know only about their own environment and people and fear all else, including HIM, to his astonishment! I liked the message that people are people wherever you go. We all love and protect our families, try to find enough food, and need to have shelter. Our lives aren't that different after all.
Fredle also came to the realization that some "rules" or customs only exist out of momentum rather than logic, and there might be better ways to do things. All of the different groups he encountered had knowledge that was new to Fredle, but none of them knew everything about the world. None of us do, but it helps to be willing to learn from others as you share what you know.