For the child grappling with a scary conflict, this book explores finding inner strength and confronting fear when faced with a seemingly insurmountable challenge.
A parent should reach for this book when their child is consumed by a specific fear or conflict, like dealing with a bully, and feels utterly alone. The story follows twelve-year-old Mouse, who accidentally insults the school's toughest boy, Marv Hammerman. The book charts Mouse's escalating panic and his attempts to hide, all while his well-meaning friend's advice proves useless. It masterfully portrays the internal experience of anxiety and the lonely journey toward confronting a fear head-on. For ages 9 to 12, this classic novel is less about winning a fight and more about the profound bravery it takes just to face it, validating a child's feelings of terror while modeling resilience.
The book's central theme is bullying, specifically the threat of physical violence. The approach is direct, secular, and focused on the psychological experience of the victim. The resolution is highly realistic: Mouse faces Hammerman, gets beaten up, but survives and earns his own self-respect. It is not a story where the bully is punished or defeated, but one where the protagonist triumphs internally by conquering his fear. The resolution is hopeful in its realism.
Ideal Reader
This is for the 9-11 year old worrier or over-thinker who is grappling with a looming fear. It's for the child who feels small, physically or emotionally, and is convinced a social problem is insurmountable. They might be dealing with a bully, but it could also be a social fear, like giving a speech or trying out for a team.
Parent Prep
The book can be read cold. However, parents should be prepared to discuss the ending. The fact that Mouse 'loses' the fight but still feels victorious is a key concept. A parent can help their child understand that bravery isn't about winning, but about showing up for yourself even when you're terrified. A parent notices their child is suddenly anxious about school, avoiding certain people or places, or expressing constant 'what-if' worries about a social conflict. The child might say, "Everyone is going to laugh at me," or "He's going to get me."
Age Experience
A younger reader (9-10) will connect with the straightforward 'cat and mouse' chase and the visceral fear of the bully. An older reader (11-12) will better appreciate the psychological depth: the themes of loneliness, the inadequacy of friendship in certain crises, and the internal nature of courage. Older readers will grasp the nuance of the ending more readily.
What Makes It Special
Unlike many books on bullying that focus on clever schemes, friend-group interventions, or adults solving the problem, this book is a deep dive into one child's internal experience of fear. Its primary focus is on the emotional journey from terror to resilience. The realistic ending, where courage is decoupled from physical victory, makes it a uniquely powerful and honest exploration of the topic.
Read plot summary
Ben "Mouse" Fawley, a small 12-year-old, accidentally writes an insulting message about Marv Hammerman, the feared school bully. Hammerman vows to get him. The story follows Mouse's intense fear and his desperate, imaginative, and ultimately futile attempts to avoid the inevitable confrontation. Guided by his friend Ezzie's often unhelpful advice and his own mental list of how to survive 17 other emergencies (like attacks by killer ants or quicksand), Mouse must eventually find the courage within himself to face his eighteenth, and most realistic, emergency.
This overview was generated by AI based on the book's content and reviews, and may not capture every nuance.
Discussion Prompts
1
Mouse has a list of emergencies like being attacked by an octopus. Why do you think he was so unprepared for his eighteenth emergency, which involved another person?
2
Mouse's friend Ezzie gives him a lot of advice, but none of it is very helpful. In what ways was Ezzie a good friend, and in what ways was he not?
3
At the end of the book, Mouse gets beaten up by Hammerman, but he feels like he won something. What do you think he won?
4
Near the end, Hammerman seems to have forgotten he was even mad at Mouse. What does this tell you about how important the conflict was to Hammerman versus how important it was to Mouse?
