Amanda Dee

A Mouse That Talked Too Much Amanda Dee

Stephen, a little mouse from the village of Cheesecrumbs, likes talking so much that he never stops! But one day he discovers how talking so much can change the lives of his family and those around him. 'Little Tails of Cheesecrumbs' is a series of tales Amanda Dee wrote for her children as bedtime stories: "For many years I have been reading books to my children: from the classics like P. L. Travers and Edith Nesbit to the modern short paperbacks we were picking up in the supermarkets. Modern short tales often surprised me with their language - often too complicated for the children they were aimed at and with the preference of some authors to entertain kids rather than teach them something useful or morally sound through recognisable situations children may relate to. ''The moral of the story" was something left in the Victorian era. As a result, these days we are too often busy entertaining our kids without teaching them about right and wrong, fair and unfair, the importance of respecting others or standing up for what's just and important to them. Instead, they have to learn to deal with these issues and making hard choices when they have grown. In my childhood, tales helped children to re-live in their imagination situations which they were likely to come across in real life and make the right decisions in the future, knowing own strengths and weaknesses and recognising fair play and deceit of others. I tried to write a few tales for my kids reviving the "old approach", using easier readable language and maintaining the balance between an entertaining story and "a lesson to be learned". I gave the characters names of my boys and their friends, trying not to create a set of recognisable heroes, but allow the parents who may be reading these tales to their children to replace, if necessary, the names of characters with their children's names. A number of children who read them or to whom they were read - liked them. That encouraged me to continue!Thank you for choosing my book. I would always welcome any constructive feedback about the language, the plot or the moral. Hope your little treasures will like some of my stories."