Children's booksChildren's books

Top 10 literary rodents

From Stuart Little to the beloved Ratty, author Kate DiCamillo picks 10 of the best rodents she has known and loved in children's books – and who have inspired her to go on and create her own in the form of Despereaux the mouse and Ulysses the squirrel

Find out more about Kate's Flora and Ulysses which has been longlisted for the Guardian children's fiction prize 2014

1. Abel from Abel's Island, by William Steig

This story of how the mouse Abelard Hassam di Chirico Flint (Abel for short) gets separated from his wife and his civilized life and learns to survive alone on an island in the middle of a river is inspiring, funny, and elegant.

2. Amos from Ben and Me, by Robert Lawson

It turns out that Benjamin Franklin didn't come up with all those wonderful inventions and words of wisdom entirely by himself. He had help: a mouse named Amos.

3. Dr De Soto from Dr De Soto by William Steig

Dr De Soto is a gentleman dentist. He is also a mouse. And, happily, he is nobody's fool.

4. Lilly from Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes

Lilly is the Unsinkable Molly Brown of mice. Every one of Henkes's books about Lilly is honest, heartfelt, and very, very funny. But I must say that I have a particular fondness for all the shenanigans surrounding the purple plastic purse.

5. Little Margaret from The Summer Sherman Loved Me, by Jane St Anthony

Little Margaret is a squirrel. She is not to be confused with Margaret, who is a girl. And then there's Sherman, who just might love Margaret (the girl, not the squirrel). Funny and sweet.

6. The Mouse and His Child from The Mouse and His Child, by Russell Hoban

This father and son are wind-up mice, but they are rodents nonetheless. Contains one of my very favorite last-lines: "'Be happy,' said the tramp."

7. Ratty from The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame)

Ratty is actually not a rat; he is a water vole. Even better, he is a water vole with literary pretensions. I love him – and everyone else in this book.

8. Stuart from Stuart Little, by E B White

Quoting the opening lines will more than suffice: "When Mrs. Frederick C Little's second son arrived, everybody noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse. The truth of the matter was, the baby looked very much like a mouse in every way." How can you not keep reading?

9. Templeton from Charlotte's Web by E B White)

The rattiest rat of them all: filthy, greedy, disdainful, and funny.

10. Tucker, The Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden

Tucker is a city mouse and a good friend to a musically gifted cricket named Chester. I loved this book when I was a kid. And I love this quote from George Selden about how the book came to be: "One night I was coming home on the subway, and I did hear a cricket chirp in Times Square. The story formed in my mind within minutes. An author is very thankful for minutes like those, although they happen all too infrequently."

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