Seven Blind Mice

Book Title:  Seven Blind Mice

Book Author:  Ed Young

Book Illustrator:  Ed Young

This book addresses:  Different perspectives, jumping to conclusions

Potentially Tricky Vocabulary:  

Supple: adaptable or bendable 

Questions to ask the student before reading: 

• Is it possible to misunderstand something when you only have part of the story?

• Why is it important to be as sure as you can that you understand things?

Historical context to give before reading:  

This book is about some mice who discover something mysterious near their home.

(The questions to ask the student and historical content above are interconnected. The historical context is typically going to be a supplement to what your student might not know. Some students may already be knowledgeable about a subject, others may not know much yet. Pay attention to what your student already knows and share the historical context accordingly.)

While reading: 

See if your student can guess what the mysterious visitor is before it’s revealed. Point out how the first illustration on each day is what the visitor actually looks like, while the next page changes the illustration to show how the mouse sees it. 

After reading: 

Talk about how each mouse only had a part of the picture, a part of the story, and it was only when the last mouse ran over the entire elephant that the mice were able to discover exactly what it was. Each mouse had a different perspective on what the visitor was and so they all disagreed. Also discuss with your student how this relates to real life - how, when we don’t have the entire story, we might jump to conclusions and be wrong about something. It was only when looking at the entire visitor and piecing together everything that they’d seen that the mice discovered the truth and all agreed.

Follow up activity (time permitting):  

Pretend it hadn’t been an elephant that came to visit the pond and pick a different creature. What might the mice have felt then and how might they have interpreted the different parts of the creature? (Example: If it were a panda visiting, the mice might have felt the leg and thought it was a bush)

All definitions were adapted by Karina Connolly from the Merriam Webster online dictionary.