Fourth grade is difficult enough without the loss of a beloved grandparent and a move to a new school. Alex B. Johnson, however, had some unique help getting through the year.
Now, 30 years later, someone sent a package of tiny books to Alex's daughter, Katie. The books are about that difficult 4th grade year when her dad experienced many changes. It is also about the year he met a family of rather unusual mice: mice who had their own problems.
Swute is a thoughtful, little mouse who has taken up residence in Alex's belly button. "I "am" imaginary in there" he reassures Alex. But Swute isn't the only belly-button mouse. There is Liza-Bit, a practical mouse who is looking for her lost little brother.
Franklin is a young mouse with a bit of a problem. He gets easily distracted from his goal of trying to find something, anything, that he can do well.
Belly-button mouse Benjamin is an artist with great talent and a secret dream. His sister, Guinevere, is discovering that always being the responsible one is becoming more and more difficult.
Finally, there is Hairy. Hairy wonders about his past while trying to live in, of all places, a garden. Really, how many belly-button mice live in gardens?
Katie thinks her dad, Alex B. Johnson, has written a funny, imaginative story. But sometimes Katie wonders why the writing is so very, very tiny.
"Swute's Stories: The Circle Must Grow" is aimed at 4th grade readers. It is also a great read aloud book. As each character finds a way to deal with a problem, the reader discovers why "the circle must grow."