✨The Great Mouse Escape (2025)

By James Patterson and Christ Grabenstein

Illustrations by Jennifer L. Meyer

4Rbooks                                          5/6                   grades          4-7

Amazon                                          4.3/5              grade level   3-7

Goodreads                                      4.07/5          

Common Sense Media              5/5                  ages 8+

318 pages

Synopsis

             Isaiah, the bright blue mouse, has been living peacefully with his human friend Hailey and mouse friend Mikayla since leaving the Lamina Labs. Unknown to them, a van is outside the house and has been watching them.  Lamina wants their animals back and send in three brightly colored, talking cats to find Isaiah and return him to the lab. They capture Mikayla instead, but not before destroying much of the house.

            This leads Isaiah and Hailey to pursue them and get Mikayla back home.  There will be many adventures, struggles, and dangers along the way. Isaiah will find himself on a bus to Chicago and then a plane to San Jose, joining up with Gabriel, a member of Mikayla’s mischief.

Mikayla will be taken to Chicago but then escape and fly back to New Jersey.  After reconnecting with Hailey, they convince Hailey’s parents to fly them to San Jose to find Isaiah and Gabriel.  

Finally meeting at the Xylotech business in Sunnyvale the mouse and human friends will work together to help all of the animals at the lab escape.

Parental Guidelines:    medium

Animals have been captured and trapped in labs for experiments.

A pigeon was close to getting a shot that would grow an extra pair of wings.

Two mice are flushed down an airplane toilet.

Wide variety of gross-out humor (bathroom, garbage, sticky floors, airplane septic systems).

Isaiah encounters a tween running away from home.

Hailey has problems with her parents because they don’t believe her stories about the animals, but they come together in the end.

Three genetically engineered cats come to Hailey’s house to capture Isaiah and Mikayla causing much damage and destruction in the chase.

Recommendation

This is a follow-up to Word of Mouse, a book I reviewed on October 15, 2020. Like the first book, it’s a gentler, simpler take on the Mrs. Frisby and the Ratos NIMH story. It has similar themes. Animals are still being used in scientific experiments and friends need to work together to help each other out. It’s an easy read with short chapters and good action. Children might have questions about the animals being kept cages and the experiments.

The chapters are short and the action consistent so I think most students will enjoy this novel. It is appropriate for an individual read or a group/class read in a school setting. There are opportunities for extension activities on a variety of subjects.