Nature Book Club: Frederick by Leo Lionni

Did you know around 40% of the mammals on earth are in the Rodentia (or rodent) order?

Chipmunks, beavers, hamsters, gophers, and mice are all among the 1,500-plus species of rodents. There are so many different kinds of these incredible small mammals!

This reminds me that we made a PetSmart visit part of our study so we could view the hamsters, mice, gerbils, and rats. We miss our sweet Peanut but aren’t quite ready for another hamster yet. We had fun watching them all play and eat and explore after reading about Frederick.

If you aren’t familiar, Frederick is a delightful mouse created by the gifted storyteller, Leo Lionni. Frederick is a unique little field mouse with a penchant for looking at the beautiful parts of life and holding onto those memories until just the right moment.

A perfect book for little ones, this story also covers a habitat and food sources common to wild mice in a way that is a gentle introduction to preschool and early elementary ages. This introduction often leads to more questions and exploration so we have included some notebooking pages and other resources for further reading below. This site has many interesting facts.

Because Frederick is such an artistic Mus (that’s the genus for a mouse), we created a lovely watercolor bookmark in his honor. The directions for that and a tutorial video are just a bit further down the page. Leo Lionni crafts are always favorites around here!

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