Frederick Read online

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  Copyright © 1967 by Leo Lionni.

  Copyright renewed 1995 by by Leo Lionni

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. KNOPF, BORZOI BOOKS, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Lionni, Leo.

  Frederick / by Leo Lionni.

  Summary: Frederick the field mouse sat on the old stone wall while his four brothers gathered food for the approaching winter days. The other mice felt that Frederick was not doing his share of the work, but when the food ran out, Frederick saved the day with what he had gathered.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-97450-1

  [1. Mice—Stories. 2. Picture books for children.]

  I. Title.

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v3.1

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  First Page

  About the Author

  All along the meadow where the cows grazed and the horses ran, there was an old stone wall.

  In that wall, not far from the barn and the granary, a chatty family of field mice had their home.

  But the farmers had moved away, the barn was abandoned, and the granary stood empty. And since winter was not far off, the little mice began to gather corn and nuts and wheat and straw. They all worked day and night.

  All — except Frederick.

  “Frederick, why don’t you work?” they asked.

  “I do work,” said Frederick.

  “I gather sun rays for the cold dark winter days.”

  And when they saw Frederick sitting there, staring at the meadow, they said, “And now, Frederick?”

  “I gather colors,” answered Frederick simply. “For winter is gray.”

  And once Frederick seemed half asleep. “Are you dreaming, Frederick?” they asked reproachfully.

  But Frederick said,

  “Oh no, I am gathering words. For the winter days are long and many, and we’ll run out of things to say.”

  The winter days came, and when the first snow fell

  the five little field mice took to their hideout in the stones.

  In the beginning there was lots to eat,

  and the mice told stories of foolish foxes and silly cats. They were a happy family.

  But little by little they had nibbled up most of the nuts and berries, the straw was gone, and the corn was only a memory.

  It was cold in the wall and no one felt like chatting.

  Then they remembered what Frederick had said about sun rays and colors and words.

  “What about your supplies, Frederick?” they asked.

  “Close your eyes,” said Frederick,

  as he climbed on a big stone.

  “Now I send you the rays of the sun.

  Do you feel how their golden glow…”

  And as Frederick spoke of the sun

  the four little mice began to feel warmer.

  Was it Frederick’s voice?

  Was it magic?

  “And how about the colors, Frederick?” they asked anxiously. “Close your eyes again,” Frederick said.

  And when he told them of the blue periwinkles, the red poppies in the yellow wheat, and the green leaves of the berry bush, they saw the colors as clearly as if they had been painted in their minds.

  “And the words, Frederick?”

  Frederick cleared his throat,

  waited a moment, and then,

  as if from a stage, he said:

  “Who scatters snowflakes? Who melts the ice?

  Who spoils the weather? Who makes it nice?

  Who grows the four-leaf clovers in June?

  Who dims the daylight? Who lights the moon?

  Four little field mice who live in the sky.

  Four little field mice…like you and I.

  One is the Springmouse who turns on the showers.

  Then comes the Summer who paints in the flowers.

  The Fallmouse is next with walnuts and wheat.

  And Winter is last…with little cold feet.

  Aren’t we lucky the seasons are four?

  Think of a year with one less…or one more!”

  When Frederick had finished, they all applauded.

  “But Frederick,” they said, “you are a poet!”

  Frederick blushed, took a bow, and said shyly, “I know it.”

  Leo Lionni wrote and illustrated more than forty highly acclaimed children’s books. An internationally known designer, illustrator, graphic artist, and children’s book author, he was born in 1910 in Holland and came to the United States in 1939. He received the 1984 American Institute of Graphic Arts Gold Medal, was a four-time Caldecott Honor winner—for Inch by Inch, Frederick, Swimmy, and Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse—and was honored posthumously in 2007 with the Society of Illustrators Lifetime Achievement Award. Leo Lionni died in October 1999 at his home in Tuscany, Italy, at the age of eighty-nine.

  • Praise for Frederick •

  “A splendid achievement.”—School Library Journal, Starred

  A Caldecott Honor Book

  An American Library Association-ALSC Notable Children’s Book

  A New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year

  A Library of Congress Children’s Book of the Year

 

 

  Leo Lionni, Frederick

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