Nicolas, Where Have You Been?

Not all of Lionni's stories will be loved by every reader, but imo this one is most likely to be highly regarded by most readers. "One bad bird doesn't make a flock" is a lesson we all need to master.

(Especially my paranoid neighbors on NextDoor.)

Nicolas, where have you been? tells the story about Nicolas the mouse who gets carried away by a big bird while collecting berries with his friends. He lives with the birds, they give him berries and they have fun. When he comes back to his friends he wants to tell them what happened but when they hear about the bird they get angry because the birds always get the good red berries before the mice. At the end Nicolas' friends the birds come and bring berries for all of them, and Nicolas' friends decide that “one bad bird doesn't make a flock”. This is a good opportunity to teach children about getting rid of prejudices against others

This book was really interesting to read. It's good example to show anyone that although some things in the past aren't good, you can change it.

This book follows a common theme for Leo Lionni; individual differences. This book tells a story about mice and birds. The mice assume the worst of the birds and label all birds the same. Nicholas soon learns that this is not true when he gets taken care of by a family of birds. The mice learn that not everyone who is different is bad. Some people have differences that are assets and they should be accepting of those differences.

This book could be used in the classroom to explain to students how differences in people do not mean they are bad or hurtful in any way. Just because one person is different and mean does not mean we can judge everyone you meet because of it.

This book is about a field mouse named Nicolas who was unable to find ripe red berries to eat. All the birds had taken the berries and so the field mice became angry. While they were searching for berries a bird swooped down and picked up Nicolas. He was able to wiggle himself free and ended up in a nest in a tree with other birds. Nicolas made friends with the birds and had to explain to his friends that some birds are nice. This is a book that should be used for third or fourth grade. If I used this book I would skip a page because the graphic is too harsh for children.

This book would be good to read to children, but not very young children. It would be good to teach lessons on getting along with others.