- Rife with humor and personality, this very young middle grade novel has a classic old-fashioned feel and a package equipped with the makings of a modern classic. In Bless This Mouse, a very resilient and quirky colony of church mice fear yet another Great X (more than they fear cats!), but under Mouse Matriarch Hildegarde"s leadership, they band together and save themselves from impending doom - even if it"s just by the skin of their tails! Lois Lowry is no stranger to delighting middle grade audiences. Lowry"s acclaimed Gooney Bird series was championed by School Library Journal as [a] fine selection for beginning chapter book readers and as a read-aloud. Lemony Snicket gave The Willoughbys a starred review in Publisher"s Weekly, while Kirkus called it a sparklingly smart satire. More recently published on our Spring 2010 list is Lowry"s Birthday Ball with wonderfully swirly, evocative, energetic character sketches by the fabulous Feiffer (SLJ) which Booklist hailed an original fairy tale with a decidedly comical twist in its starred review.