Mousenapped: An Inter-species Adventure

By Jinjer Stanton

Jamie the house mouse is too sympathetic for his own good. True, he’d gotten a generous housemate and a bosom buddy because of it. But lonely Sara misinterprets his friendliness and carries him away to a strange and hostile place. His unconventional friends, a human and a fierce grasshopper mouse, must find a way to rescue him. The odds are stacked against them and there may be more at stake than Jamie’s safety. For Sara’s ability to see things that others cannot frightens her mother. Can the quest to save one mouse also heal a human family rift?

Mousenapped weaves elements of natural science, herbalism and mysticism into a delightful, well-paced story about a girl, her mother and aunt, and two mice. The story features pleasantly complex characters both human and animal. The author artfully avoids the expected, both in her characters and in her story line, offering small surprises along the way to keep even adult readers interested.

D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review:

“From a child who sees too much and defies the perceptions and anticipations of adults in her world to mice who have a vested interest in preserving their unusual friendship against all odds, Mousenapped is anything but predictable with its vivid story of protagonists who hold special abilities and form special bonds.”

. . .

"So if it's something different you're looking for in middle school reading - something that incorporates new age philosophy and different perceptions into its story - then Mousenapped is the item of choice. It's highly recommended for its more complex, bigger picture of the world and the beliefs of those who inhabit it ... whether they be mouse or woman."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jinjer Stanton
• Release date: Oct 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311589071

Jinjer Stanton

Jinjer Stanton is a yoga teacher in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is also an amateur naturalist and photographer. It is Jinjer's passion in life to observe the world and, if she can manage it, make sense of it. She wrote her new book,Mousenapped for three reasons: 1) because she has recently met a number of people who had talents when they were young that were, essentially, beaten out of them, 2) because she herself always felt like an outsider in her family, and 3) because she is fascinated by both grasshopper mice and the capacity for creatures of differing species to befriend one another. She served as a minister for several years at a new thought church where she met several people who started out life like Mousenapped protagonist Sara. They had abilities that their parents couldn't value or believe in so those parents did everything in their power (often, with the best intentions) to weed those abilities out of their child. Jinjer is an herbalist who has experience with making salves like Aunt Nellie in the story. Jinjer is the author of the Midwest Book Awards finalist Yoga for Every Room in Your House. She wrote Yoga for Every Room in Your House, because of her own struggles with finding a way to do yoga on a regular basis. Her writing appears in a several publications including The Edge: Soul of the Cities (www.soulofthecities.com) and Essential Wellness (www.tcwellness.com). Articles by Jinjer have been translated into both German and Italian.

Book preview

Before the Beginning

Dark fell and Roland headed out to hunt insects.

He was nosing along the foundation of a house looking for sow bugs behind a clump of nettles and last year's fallen leaves, when he discovered a hole. Enormous rootlike things ran through it from the house to a nearby shed. The hole was nearly big enough for him to crawl through and as he sniffed at it he detected a tantalizing scent that made him think of generations of something living and multiplying without much attention to tidying up after themselves.

As he crouched there, wondering, a sow bug scurried out on personal business oblivious (as they tend to be) of what was going on in the world around her. Roland snatched her up and swallowed her down.

Roland now knew that there were at least sow bugs in addition to that mysterious and provocative something so he began scrabbling at the hole to make it bigger. The mortar crumbled just a bit more and, with a little squeezing, he found himself in a new space rich with aroma.

It lacked the fulsome scent of tunnels and dens in the earth, yet it was much like a tunnel. It was too tall and too narrow for any creature he'd ever seen. Yet it was lived in. The scent he'd detected from outside was stronger and even more alluring. He wandered along, looking for the creature he could smell so vividly.

Up ahead he saw a thread of light, and by it he detected the movement of something small and dark. As he drew nearer, a riot of small dark shapes scuttled off, some into deeper shadow, others out into the brighter light. These are the ones he followed through a much-gnawed gap in another wall.

He came through just in time to see one of the creatures he'd been following slither out of sight between the drywall and the floor. Frustrated, he scrabbled at the place, squeaking his fury.

Excuse me. What are you looking for? asked a friendly voice.

Roland whirled about fiercely and bared his teeth. He found himself nearly nose-to-nose with a house mouse. What's it to you? He growled.

The house mouse, Jamie, cringed visibly at the scent of Roland's breath. Fear made his eyes grow round and his voice grow higher. N-n-n-nothing, he breathed as took a small step back. Then he took a deep breath and sat up on his haunches. I just thought I might be able to help.

Roland put his frustration on hold while he paused to think. The house mouse hadn't run away at the scent of his carnivorous breath. He sat up on his haunches too, to signify his willingness to chat. Did you see that big dark insect high-tail it into that crack?

Was it a cockroach? asked Jamie.

It was something I don't come across normally, admitted Roland. It smelled interesting, though.

It must have been a cockroach, decided the house mouse. There are thousands in this house. I can show you where they hang out. He turned tail and trotted off.

Bemused, Roland trotted along behind, out across a huge empty space to an outsized hole into another huge space. He could smell the mother lode of these cockroaches.

The house mouse said, They like to hang out in the kitchen, as he waved a negligent paw.

That night Roland feasted leaving pile after pile of insect legs behind him.

Meanwhile, the house mouse munched nervously on some bread crumbs under the stove. And when Roland sat back on his haunches to clean his whiskers, the house mouse spoke up hesitantly. D-do you eat other things than roaches?

Roland answered, Oh, I'm fond of sow bugs and grasshoppers, the occasional moth or larva. That sort of thing.

S-so, you don't eat mice?

Roland looked at him and saw his trembling courage. Nah! My folks do. So do my bothers and sisters, but this grasshopper mouse likes the skeleton on the outside! He licked the last bit of cockroach juice off his paw before going down on all fours and offering his nose. The name's Roland.

The house mouse crept closer. I'm Jamie. Their noses touched and each gave a polite sniff. Jamie can't be blamed for backing off sooner than was strictly polite.

Glad to meet you, Jamie, chuckled Roland. Mind if I stop by now and again to snack on your house mates?

Jamie answered, Not at all, so long as you leave Nellie off the menu. She's my human.

She's human, she's mammal, she's safe! Roland answered gruffly, and then, he turned his back and scampered to the wall that led to the outdoors, leaving Jamie blinking in the kitchen.

Jamie stared after him wondering.

The Beginning: A Bit More Than a Year Later

Sara kept her head down during dinner. She tried very hard to tune out all of the distractions from the old lady dressed in black who kept pestering her to tell her son to straighten up and fly right.

The old lady's son was Sara's mom's boss and this was exactly the kind of thing her mom had warned her not to do. The thing was that Sara didn't know how to not see dead people and events not here and now. Her mom had company tonight from work and Sara's job was to be quiet, not ask awkward questions, and to head off to her bedroom as soon as dinner was over. She was doing well. The old lady seemed to know that her advice would no more be listened to now than it had been when she was alive.

Just as her mom brought out her homemade cheese cake for dessert, Sara saw in her mind's eye a little white dog moping before a door and whining. On top of that vision was the image of a rather severe woman slamming the door on her way out. On top of that was an image of Sara's mom's boss cooking a frozen dinner in the microwave while the little dog stood by an empty bowl thumping his tail hopefully.

All her good intentions were nullified and forgotten. Sara's heart went out to that puppy.

Words spilled out. Oh, Mister Blienfield! Can I have your little white dog? He'll just get lost in the shuffle during your divorce... And in that instant she realized she'd put her foot squarely in it.

She didn't have to look at her mother to know that her brows were lowering and her mouth was tightening. Sara pushed her chair away from the table as unobtrusively as possible—which was not at all. Rebecca and David, the other co-workers, stared studiously at the lace table cloth. In the silence, the ticking of the old, wind-up clock on the mantle sounded like the beating of a drum in a funeral procession in a movie.

Mr. Blienfield cleared his throat and locked his gaze on the cheese cake. His voice was hoarse when he spoke. Dessert looks, he cleared his throat, it looks wonderful, Nora. But, I think I'm gonna have to pass. Thanks for the lovely meal. He didn't look grateful at all. With a perfunctory nod in the direction of the folks arranged around the table, he pushed his chair back and headed for the door.

All visitors were out the front door within minutes; only Rebecca paused to give her a sympathetic smile, and the beautiful cheese cake lay abandoned on the table.

Sara caught heck.

Part 1: The End of Summer

Chapter 1: Jamie Has an Idea

Roland bit the head off his cockroach and savored the crunch. "Did I mention there's a small-sized human just outside my