Caldecott Medalist David Small lovingly shows us the heart of Russell Hoban's classic. The mouse and his child are wind-up toys forever joined at the hands. But when their mechanism breaks they are discarded, separated from the doll house where they lived and the toy elephant that the child calls "mother" (much to her chagrin). Thus begins the suspenseful journey that is heartbreaking, harrowing, and ultimately joyful as the mice seek what seems at first to be impossible: independence (self-winding) and the way back home.