By: Kazuo Iwamura 
Originally Published In: Japan
Format: paperback
Language: Simplified Chinese
Pages per book: 30
Lines per page: 1 line
Price per book: $6.79
Luka® can read this book!

Mouse Dad, Mouse Mom, Mouse Granddad, Mouse Grandmom, and 10 Mouse siblings...These addorable Chinese books 14只老鼠 (shí sì zhī lǎo shǔ)tell stories of one big family of 14 forest mice!

When the now famed writer and artist Iwamura was 36 years old, he and his wife moved to live a quiet life in the remote countryside of Japan and he devoted himself to a detached creative life. Nature was his passion, and nature rewarded him with  abundant inspiration as evidenced in his books and paintings.  Since The 14 Forest Mice Book Series was published 30 years ago, it has became a must-read Japanese children's book and has sold 10 million copies worldwide. The Chinese version of the 7 Little Mice Series alone has sold 400,000 copies . 

The simplicity of life, the warmth of a big family, the abundance of love,  and the visual feast of mother nature portrayed in the exquisite, detailed illustrations invite young readers to spend hours pouring over the pages of Iwamura's works.

The 12 nostalgic stories follow the 14-mouse mice family through the 4 seasons, telling adorable stories of their daily life and adventures: cooking, picking berries, growing pumpkins, chasing dragonflies, etc....The simplicity of life, the warmth of a big family, the abundance of love,  and the visual feast of mother nature portrayed in exquisitely detailed illustrations invite young readers to invest in the family fun and become as familiar with each mouse as they would be with a friend next door.  

This is a great series for parents or teachers to practice "dialogic reading" with children. Every time you read, invite your child to make new discoveries in the detailed illustrations. How many mice can you see? Who is mouse sibling #1? Is this mouse brother #5? Where is the red dragonfly? What flowers do you recognize in this spring forest scene?   

Each detailed fully illustrated page has one simple line of text making it a little simpler than its counterpart The 7 Little Mice 4-Book Set which has 3-6 lines of text for each page. Both sets' detailed illustrations serve as visual scaffolding allowing readers to infer meaning of unfamiliar words or phrases. 

Book titles:

Is my child ready for this set?

"Read to me":
Children ages 3+ will enjoy having these books read to them either by Luka® or a caregiver. PLEASE NOTE: Luka reads all of these books in "Role Play" Mode. Although most pages are read word-for-word, there are a few pages in each book where the narrator provides some additional detail not included in the text.

"Read by myself": 
Young readers 5+ who know about 500 Chinese characters will enjoy reading the stories with some assistance. with only one-line of text on each page, children may feel a great sense of accomplishment to read a big 30-page story.  

Option to pair with Luka®:
Consider adding Luka®, the reading robot, to your order. Luka® reads 70,000 books in Mandarin Chinese! ​
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Set Luka® in front of the book, and it will read aloud any page your child turns to-- creating a unique, independent physical book reading experience even if your child isn't ready to read by themselves. Click to read our founders' personal review of Luka here.
Please note that Luka reads all books in this set in its "Role Play" mode

Happy learning!