"That's quite a story," said her mother. "It's not a story, it's true!" said Josie.
Meet Albert's cousin
Thomas Mouse
When Albert befriends a homeless mouse he met in the churchyard, little does he know that they are related.
Mrs Mouse invites Thomas to live with them at No.10 Higher Street, but unbeknown to the little mouse family, Thomas can't read (or write).
Luckily, Big Tony soon realises and offers to teach Thomas to read.
The background to the Thomas books
This advice didn’t seem to cheer Thomas up. He so wanted to be like his cousin Albert. But he knew that no matter how hard he tried he would never be as smart as Albert Mouse.
And why? Well, I’ll tell you. It was because Thomas had a secret that he couldn’t tell anyone, until one day …
Big Tony flew up and landed on Thomas’s windowsill.
“What are you reading?” asked the gull.
“Nothing,” said Thomas quickly closing the book he was looking at.
“Nothing?” asked Big Tony.
“That’s right, nothing!” said the mouse, sounding nervous.
The gull looked at the little mouse for several moments.
“You can’t read can you?” He asked, folding his arms.
Thomas looked embarrassed and started to cry.
“Hey don’t cry. I remember when I couldn’t read either,” said Big Tony.
“Really?” asked Thomas looking surprised.
“Everyone has to learn to read. It’s just part of growing up,” said the gull.
”I was hoping nobody would notice,” sniffled Thomas.
“You can’t put a patch over things and hope they go away,” said Big Tony.
“Please don’t anyone, especially Dorothy,” said Thomas.
“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me, but I think I need to teach you to read soon before they all find out,” said the gull.
“Oh, could you?” asked the mouse drying his eyes.
“I’m sure I could but we will have to find a quiet place, away from Dorothy,” suggested the gull.
Big Tony decided that the Orchard Forest School would be a good place and they set off in secret for Thomas’s first lesson.
Learn to Read with Thomas Mouse Books
About Thomas
Thomas looks up to Albert and wishes he could be like him.
The problem is, that Thomas can't read, but he's embarrassed to tell anyone in case they laugh at him.
Helping children to read and learn Albert's values at the same time
The Thomas books will allow children to follow the words of these delightful short stories.
Each book focuses on a single letter of the alphabet at a time and some important keywords that start with that letter. These keywords are 'value' words, such as brave, caring, honest, kind, modest, understanding etc. As the child reads the story, they will see that being brave, caring, honest, kind, modest, understanding etc are important values to have, but being unique makes us special.
Suitable for very young children (and Mice!)