Summary:
Two mice share a couple days adventure having fun and playing games at each others living spaces. In the countryside, the city mouse gets bored and wants to go home to his fancy food, but in the city, the extravagant living comes with the price of constant threat from a cat, dog, and humans. The country mouse would rather stay home in all of this.

Personal Reaction:
A simple tale, I liked it. It kinda teaches you about how while some others may think you have a simple and boring lifestyle, that it just might be the best for you, as they might live a dangerous life that is always being threatened. Sometimes, home is where you need to be.

Classroom Extension:
This could be used to teach children about the importance of prize and consequence, where the more you seek to have, the more you may be threatened to keep hold of your "treasure". ( )

The City Mouse and the Country Mouse retold by Violet Findley and illustrated by Ann Iosa
Summary:
The story begins with a little mouse that is from the country. Then here comes another mouse that was his friend living in the city. They were both happy to see each other and this compares the life of being in the country and city by the fun activities that they do together. The city mouse says that they have the finest foods such as meat, cheese, and pie there than corn and beans so they decide to get on a train and travel to the city to his big and fancy home. But all of sudden as they were about to eat, a cat and dog is chasing after them so they had to hide in a hole and the country mouse did not want to stay any longer so he decided to just go back on the train and head home after they said their goodbyes to one another. The country mouse was glad that there was no other place than being in his home where he belong.

Personal Reaction:
The story had a really good illustration to contrast the two places of a country and city which opens the minds of the children to have a knowledge of how the living is different based on food and entertainment and that they can also use their imagination and have a preference if they would want to be in a city or country.

Classroom Extension:
1. The teacher can show videos of certain states in America from the Internet describing the lifestyle of being in the city and the country.
2. Then the students will write in their journals about if they would want to live in the city or country and put down a few reasons why they chose that specific place.

Summary:
In this retelling of the traditional tale, the City Mouse comes to visit his friend Country Mouse. As Country Mouse takes his friend through a normal day, City Mouse finds himself bored and tells his friend how much better he thinks life is in the city. So the mice take a trip to City Mouse's home and go through a day there in which they get to live in luxury. But, after the mice almost get eaten, Country Mouse decides he likes his home much better and goes back to the country.

Personal Reflection:
This book is a good retelling of the well-known tale. The illustrations are well done and it all flows nicely.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
-This story is a great look at the idea that just because something may sound better, it isn't always. It could be particularly useful if you are dealing with children who are exhibiting jealousy between themselves to help them understand that just because someone thinks their life is wonderful and makes it sound great, it doesn't mean it is the best thing for everyone.
-It could be used as part of a lesson on vocabulary to help define words like "thankfulness" and "contentment" and other synonymic words. ( )

This book is about a mouse that lives in the country and his friend from the city thats a mouse. they go to the fields and eat corn. The city mouse tells his friend that he eats better food in the city the finest meat and cheese and pie. The country mouse ends up going to the city with his friend. And he finally says that the city is not for him and jumps on a train and heads home. ( )

The city mouse visits his friend in the country and has a great time, but gets bored with the plain food. The country mouse visits the city but does not like the dangers of being chased off the table by humans when trying to eat the delicious food, so he goes back home.

I thought the story was a good representation of the different lifestyles between the country and the city, and why people make their decisions on where they prefer to live. It showed that both mice were willing to leave their comfort zones and try a new place, and remain friends even though they wanted to go back to their own homes.

The children can compare and contrast what people do in the country, versus what you can do in the city. They can also discuss family and friends whom they have visited and the different things that they liked or didnt like about the visit. ( )