Tiny Makes a Friend

By Eva Schmidler

READERS' FAVORITE - Honorable Mention in the Reader's Favorite 2020 Award

Award Winning Review

Reviewed by Mamta Madhavan for Readers' Favorite

A mouse family lived in an animal refuge park at the end of a friendly forest. Mr. and Mrs. Mouse had seven children and they never had enough food to feed their big family. A tiger lived on the other side of the wall and the mouse children would watch Mr. Tiger being well looked after by the keepers who loved animals. In the Mouse house, the youngest mouse was so small that he was named Tiny by his two sisters and four brothers. Though Mama Mouse told everyone while eating to take their portions, Tiny was always left with crumbs. Tiny was always hungry because he never got enough to eat. He felt hungry looking at the food Mr. Tiger got to eat. His brothers and sisters dared him to go into Mr. Tiger's cage and have some of his food but Tiny's parents told him not to.

Tiny Makes a Friend by Eva Schmidler is a beautiful story of friendship, kindness, compassion, sharing, caring, respect, courage, and dealing with life. The book is divided into four chapters, and each chapter focuses on a different thing. The last chapter is all about family, reunion, and separation, and the unique friendship of Toby Tiger and Tiny Mouse conveys important life lessons to readers. The story is heartwarming and the friendship between Toby and Tiny will remain in the hearts of readers for a long time. The author conveys good messages through these two characters, knitting them into the story seamlessly, giving a good pace and fluidity to the action. The book is perfect for tutors and parents to teach children important messages and how to tackle life in its various stages. The character portrayals of Tiny and Toby are real, relatable, memorable, and children of ages will enjoy reading about their unusual friendship. The questions at the end of the book are useful and will help readers reflect on their lives, situations, and circumstances.

 

******AWARD-WINNING FINALIST, 2017 INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS******

Review by Marisa Rose

Tiny Makes a Friend by Eva Schmidler is a chapter book geared towards early, independent readers. The story is separated into four chapters chronicling the friendship between a mouse, Tiny, and a tiger, Toby, living on a nature reserve. The two start out as strangers and quickly become quick friends after Tiny bravely enters Toby’s cage. The rest of the story focuses on the maturation of the unlikely pair as well as the evolvement of their friendship.

The illustrations in Tiny Makes a Friend are subtle and don’t serve as the main focus of the book. Rather, the black and white, sketch-like drawings usually take up less than half a page and act as a basic visual aid. The images convey important scenes and characters from the story; however, they are more an accessory to the narrative than an important element of the book. That being said, the ratio between illustrations and wording, along with the illustrator’s refrain from childish images is impressive and clearly considers the maturity level of the older audience this book caters to.

The story of Tiny the Mouse and Toby the Tiger is wholesome and engaging. The unlikely pair serve well as a means for conveying messages about friendship, overcoming differences, trust, and the realities of growing up. The topics in this book are nothing new, yet the author provides a more in-depth look at these themes than one would expect to find in a typical picture book. For example, when Toby is going through a particularly rough time with his new handler, the story stresses that by simply listening to Toby's explanation of his problems and trying to empathize with his feelings, Tiny is a great comfort to

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Jun 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781480830592

Eva Schmidler

Eva Schmidler is an educator with a love of animals. Born in Texas, she has taught American children in France and Germany and in California. She currently resides with her husband in Georgia to be near their two sons and granddaughter. This is her first book. To learn more about the author and her book visit: www.tinymakesafriendbook.com Toby Mikle is a professional children’s book illustrator and has illustrated over 200 books. His favorite part of the process is taking someone’s dream and making it a reality. Visit his website at: www.mybookillustrator.com

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Copyright © 2016 Eva Schmidler.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Archway Publishing

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.archwaypublishing.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Illustrations by Toby Mikle.

ISBN: 978-1-4808-3058-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-3059-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016908718

Archway Publishing rev. date: 8/30/2016

CONTENTS

1 Breaking the Rule

2 A Friendship Is Made

3 A Bold Adventure

4 Bittersweet Good-Byes

TO

RICHARD AND KATE

WITH LOVE

1

Breaking the Rule

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N ot too long ago, there was a mouse family that lived in an animal refuge park. The refuge park was at the edge of a friendly forest where many animals lived and played. The mouse family made their modest home in the wall of a cage where a tiger lived. Mr. and Mrs. Mouse had seven children who were always hungry. There just never seemed to be enough food to fill so many tummies. Every day, Papa Mouse would say to Mama Mouse, I must go out and look for something to feed my big family, and that is what he did. But try as he may, day after day, he would come home with very little food for such a large family.

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On the side of the wall where the tiger lived were several cages separated so other animals could have their own place to live. The mouse hole opened into the cage of Mr. Tiger—that’s what the mouse children called him. Through their hole, they could see that the tiger was well taken care of by keepers who loved animals. The keepers enjoyed taking care of Mr. Tiger because they knew there weren’t many tigers left in the world, and each was important. They also took good care of the lion cubs, the young leopard, and the monkeys in the cages next to Mr. Tiger’s. These animals and many others that lived in the refuge park didn’t have any mothers or fathers or were old or not wanted. Every day, the mouse children would watch a nice keeper bring Mr. Tiger lots of good