Steig, William

With inimitable style, Steig tells the story of a mouse, Abelard Hassam di Chirico Flint, who gets swept away in a driving rainstorm while rescuing his wife's scarf and winds up stranded on a river island for a year. Abel isn't just any mouse. He's a fastidious Edwarian dandy whose inherited wealth ensures the leisurely comforts he takes such pleasure in. But Able's high-toned life of leisure conceals a soul full of true grit:once faced with the necessity of surviving, Abel rises to the challange.

Iren's mother is the local dressmaker. She is hired to make a beautiful dress for the duchess to wear to the ball. The day of the ball arrives and the dress is finished, but it is snowing and there is no way to deliver the dress. Irene decides to brave the storm so that her mother can finish the job on time and the duchess can look radiant and gorgeous at the ball.

Horribly hideous Shrek leaves home and terrifies everyone he encounters in his search for his equally ugly bride.

Brave Irene, the dressmaker's daughter, ventures out into a fierce snowstorm to deliver the beautiful ball gown her mother has made for the duchess.

Dr. De Soto, a mouse dentist, copes with the toothaches of various animals except those with a taste for mice, until the day a fox comes to him in great pain.