In this sweet and suspenseful tale, an orphan and a mouse discover that their unusual friendship becomes absolutely vital to holding on to the lives they know.Can a mouse and an eleven-year-old girl be friends? When Mary, a mouse whose job it is to steal useful human items, and Caro, a lonely orphan, meet, it isn't under the best of circumstances. Mary has been attacked by a cat, and Caro must not be caught nursing a pest. Yet the two bond immediately. However, as a result of the incident, an exterminator is called, and Mary is blamed. She is left behind when her community, including her children, evacuates to a safer home. Caro also finds herself in trouble when she asks too many questions about a baby who appears at the orphanage.With the help of a loner mouse named Andrew, who models himself on the great hero mouse Stuart Little and has learned to read, Mary, Caro, and a group of orphans embark on a page-turning adventure. They must expose baby-napping criminals, save Caro from being sent to a workhouse, help reunite baby Charlie with his mother, and make the orphanage a safe haven for mice for generations to come. Could it be that the key to all this is knowing how to read?Set in 1949 and taking inspiration from E. B. White's Stuart Little, this heartwarming and exciting novel reads like a classic.