Frederick by Leo Lionni is the story of Frederick, the field mouse, who refused to help his four brothers gather food for the approaching winter days. The other mice did not understand why Frederick was not doing his share of the work. However, when the food ran out, Frederick uses the memories of the sun and other things to eat to help the mice through the long days. The book is written on third grade level.
I did not find an official website for Lionni. However, I found http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons... which features a lesson plan including several activities and other links to websites for Lionni. Another website is http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/lionn... which includes directions for an author study of Lionni.

This is the story about Frederick. Frederick and his fellow mice are getting ready for the winter. Frederick's friends are getting food, nuts, and straw. Frederick isn't collecting these things like his fellow mice he is instead collecting sunlight, colors, and words. Once all the food is gone Frederick saves the day with his collection.

This is a very cute book. A nice concept. The pictures are very large and simple. This book could be used as an art project, to have the students copy the theme of the illustrations. ( )

This is a great book that teaches creativity. Fredrick is a mouse that thinks outside the box, even when he friends do not agree with what he is doing. He does not act like the other mice in the book, and in the end, it turns out Fredrick had a purpose and shares the sunlight and colors with his friends. This is a great book that can be used to have students use imagination and creativity.

The other mice all think that Frederick is lazy when he is not busy collecting food for the winter. He replies that he is collecting other things that are also important. After the food runs out after the winter, Frederick tells the mice about the sunshine and colors of summer, and they realize that he is a poet.

Reading level: 3.1 This book is about a mouse family who is all gathering supplies for the winter and the mouses get mad at frederick because they fel he is not helping but at the end of the book they find out that he was gathering the sunlite and pretty colors. They realized that just because he wasnt gathering the same kinds of supplies as they were does not mean that he was not helping. The children can create a book about something they once did not realize what it truly was untill later. ( )