"At birth Stuart could have been sent by first class mail for three cents, but his parents preferred to keep him rather than send him away; and when, at the age of a month, he had gained only a third of an ounce, his mother was so worried she sent for the doctor. The doctor was delighted with Stuart and said that it was very unusual for an American family to have a mouse."
Novel intended for children, written by E.B. White with pen and ink illustrations by Garth Williams, first published in 1945.
Stuart Little was the second child born to the Little family of New York City. Although of small stature and looking just like a mouse, he is highly intelligent, and his parents and older brother George quickly learn to accept him, although the family cat Snowball has trouble going against her natural instincts.
Stuart at first has a series of the types of adventures one might expect a mouse/boy to have, including going down the drain to look for a ring his mother dropped, retrieving Ping-Pong balls, and racing toy boats on the Central Park lagoon.
He meets a vireo named Margalo who perches on his windowsill, but who eventually gets driven away by Snowball. Stuart leaves his family behind and goes out on his own, driving a toy car, ostensibly on a quest to find her.
Stuart Little is a coming of age story with a twist; a fantasy that's firmly grounded in reality. It's funny, yet tender, with a surprisingly bittersweet ending -- essentially the same qualities as the later Charlotte's Web, by the same author and illustrator. | 
