I read this book with my dad 15 or so years ago, when I was quite young, and I haven’t been able to track it down since. It is about a young mouse who is extremely slow at everything, and one day his parents and many siblings go out on rollerskates (not 100% sure about the rollerskating part) and because he is so laggy, he is left behind. He ventures into the wilderness and settles by what I remember to be a lake, where he begins building a house out of sticks and leaves and eventually makes friends. I think he is reunited with his family at the end. If it helps, the fabric book cover was a dark reddish color with a small, realistic drawing of a mouse standing on its hind legs in the center. It was very weathered over a decade ago, so it may be a much older book. Thank you!!
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
Walter the Lazy Mouse?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24833504-walter-the-lazy-mouse
Probably Walter the Lazy Mouse by Marjorie Flack, from 1937.
“Walter is a lazy mouse. He is so lazy that he always misses school and spends all his time in bed. He is so lazy that eventually his family forgets about him and moves away…without him. Alone and scared, Walter heads out into the world to search for his family. He travels through a dark forest and soon meets a turtle and some frogs. Walter decides to create a new home on Mouse Island. His froggy friends live nearby, and Walter tries to teach them things. With his own island—and friends who depend on him—Walter must learn to take care of himself. There is no time to be lazy! But will Walter ever see his family again?”
I remember Walter. One thing that’s interesting is that the frogs have very short memories – so I wondered if that’s based on fact, or if William Steig had Flack’s book in mind when he wrote “Abel’s Island” in 1976, about an Edwardian mouse and (late in the book) his forgetful frog friend, Gower!
Well, I’m late to the party, but I also think you’re referring to Walter The Lazy Mouse, by Marjorie Flack. It traumatized me as a kid (haha!), yet for some reason I’m the kid who ended up owning it in adulthood!
This is what the copy I have looks like -dark, old, and in rough shape! 🙂
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17380664-walter-the-lazy-mouse
Wow, thank you all so much! That’s the one!!