Five Nice Mice Build a House

In Tashiro’s third tale about a quintet of genial mice, the rodents relocate to a junkyard after feeling that their current neighborhood has become “scary,” now that two cats have moved into the building. The mice don’t have much in the way of individual personalities beyond a shared capacity for niceness, but that very trait saves the day when a cat shows up at their new home. It’s the homespun details of the mice’s house, built from a wealth of raw materials at the junkyard, that bring the most delight, from a cracked teacup bathtub to a Ferris wheel made from bicycle wheels. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)