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I’m going to begin with a quote from the New York Times as quoted at the back of my copy of Alexander and the Wind-up Mouse:

If the picture book is a new visual art form in our time, Leo Lionni is certain to be judged a master of the genre. Selma Lanes

Alexander the Wind-up Mouse was first published in 1969 and this classic book is still in print. One of our large Sydney book chain stores have a book sale this month with all of their children’s books offered for a discount. When I spied Alexander the Wind-up mouse for just $4 I knew I had to buy this very special book.

Alexander is living under a human house. One day he meets another mouse. Could this be a friend? Perhaps but this new mouse is a Wind-up mouse. His name is Willy. Hearing about the life Willy leads with his human friend Annie, Alexander wishes he could become a Wind-up mouse too. Willy tells Alexander something quite astonishing. If Alexander goes into the garden there is a magic lizard who “can change one animal into another.”

The lizard sets Alexander a task. He has to find a purple pebble. Time passes and Annie has a birthday party. Alexander finds something quite awful. Annie has dumped her old toys, including Willy, into a box ready to be thrown away. Eventually Alexander does find the special purple pebble and on the night of the full moon he once again visits the magic lizard. What will he wish for?