Stuart Little [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

I chose this book to read to my son (just turned 4) and he loved it. We had read, Charlottes Web, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and this was by far his favourite. He has asked for it often since. We repeated a few chapters (the one about the boat race and the chapter just before it) again and again and again.

I didn't mind it. I found Stuart to be quite delightful.

"Stuart Little" is commendably original and I was delighted with the first half. Go with the flow of an author's imagination and you'll experience new realms. They needn't match the nature of our world but logic should balance within a tale. Two instances of Stuart's behaviour derailed the character for me, enough to lower my assessment. I was startled by a mouse-looking life form, who wasn't an adoptee but a human's offspring. It's okay that the phenomena is unexplained because this isn't an adult novel that would expand fully.

Problems like turning taps on sinks and getting rolled into window shades, were interesting. A loving family cared about each other, with their own peculiarity. I read a criticism in another review that the parents enlisted Stuart's help inside a drain and a piano. I say it illustrated his size could be useful, instead of something to regret. Imagine the esteem of a tiny person: "This is something you need me to do"! The race was a fun chapter and not an unconnected device to generate excitement. Stuart befriends the dentist there and his knowledge of watercraft comes up again too.

The bird, Margalo, is the loveliest addition and searching for her becomes the heart of the book. What bothered me is Stuart not telling his family he was going, nor having the dentist call them. When he visits a post office, it is to invite a miniature girl on a boat ride that unravels pointlessly, instead of contacting his parents. They were once frantic while he was merely lost inside the house. Perhaps E.B. White intended a sequel. I found the very best part short-changed, by leaving the search on-going. The end pages would soar exponentially with the emotion of a reunion. Instead we close flatly, on a poorly-handled date.

This was a cute book about litle Stuart the mouse in NYC. I listened to it in my car a week ago. Its a great book for kids, but I kept thinking how bizarre some of the events were. The voice of the cat in the book is agravating, like fingernails on a blackboard. The book kind of trails of in the end when Stuart starts looking for his lover, the little bird Margolo. Then it ends. Odd. But a great book to read to kids at bedtime. .