Stuart Little

Stuart Little (1945) is E. B. White’s first children’s book—the collected stories of Stuart, a mouse-boy born into a human family. White was a journalist and humorist who wrote for the United Press, the Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The New Yorker, and Harper’s Magazine. He received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Prize in 1970 for contributions to children’s literature for the much beloved Charlotte’s Web, and in 1973, The Trumpet of the Swan won the Sequoyah Award and the William Allen White Award.

This guide uses the 2015 HarperCollins e-book edition of Stuart Little.

Plot Summary

Frederick and Eleanor Little are surprised to find that their second son is born no larger than a mouse and, indeed, looks astonishingly mouselike. Nevertheless, they take him home and love him just as they do their older son George. Stuart matures far more quickly than an ordinary boy, and he soon grows to be lively and helpful. In one of his first adventures, Stuart’s mother loses a ring down the bathroom drain, and Stuart easily climbs down the drain to fetch it.

Being a mouse-sized boy presents some difficulties for Stuart. He participates in family activities by doing things like retrieving lost ping-pong balls from under the sofa and lifting the sticky piano key in the parlor, but simple tasks like brushing his teeth and washing his face are a challenge. He must climb a tiny rope ladder to the sink and strike the faucet with a mallet to get enough water to wash. His family also worries about the mousiness of his appearance. They are careful never to mention mice in a negative way, and they worry that Stuart may find himself irresistibly attracted to the mousehole in the pantry.

The family keeps a cat named Snowbell, who would eat Stuart if he thought he could get away with it. One day, he taunts Stuart into showing off his athleticism, and Stuart accidentally gets rolled up into a window blind. Snowbell then takes Stuart’s hat and cane and lays them in front of the mousehole, causing the family to believe Stuart has gone exploring inside of it as they’d feared. They search and call for him, but wrapped tightly in the window blind, Stuart can’t make them hear his cries for help. Eventually, George rolls down the window blind, releasing Stuart.

Despite his size, Stuart is adventurous. One day, he dresses in a little sailor suit and sets out for the sailboat pond in Central Park. There, he approaches the man who owns the Wasp, the most beautiful schooner on the water, and asks for a job on his ship. Doctor Carey, the ship’s master, agrees on the condition that Stuart wins a sailing race against the Lillian B. Womrath, which is owned by Doctor Carey’s chief rival. Stuart accepts the challenge, and in a dramatic test of skill and courage, wins both the race and the acclaim of the watching crowd.

Stuart is so small that he is often overlooked by his family. One day, when his mother opens the refrigerator, Stuart slips inside in search of a snack. He mistakenly assumes his mother has seen him, but he finds himself shut in the refrigerator for half an hour, during which time he falls ill. While he is sick in bed, his mother finds a small bird unconscious on the windowsill and brings her into the house to recover. Stuart and Margalo, the little bird, become friends, and Stuart loves her more every day. Stuart defends Margalo from an attack by Snowbell, and Margalo rescues Stuart from a predicament in which he has gotten himself dumped on a garbage scow headed out to sea.

Snowbell confesses to one of his feline friends how nerve-racking it is to live in the same house with a mouse and a bird and be unable to eat them. His friend offers to kill Margalo on his behalf—but not Stuart, who is a member of the family. Margalo receives warning of the murder plot and flees without a word of goodbye to Stuart.

Stuart resolves to go out into the world in search of her. Doctor Carey gives him a miniature car, and Stuart sets out, driving in the direction birds fly in spring: north. On the first day of his journey, Stuart pauses to fill in as a schoolteacher and enjoys an afternoon talking with students about what things are important in life.

Stuart follows an itinerant roving lifestyle, always driving northward in search of Margalo. He comes to Ames’ Crossing—the most beautiful town he has seen yet. There, he makes the acquaintance of a girl his own size named Harriet. He tries to impress her by taking her on a canoe trip, but the date ends in disaster and disappointment. Concluding that Ames’ Crossing and Harriet are not for him, Stuart goes back on the road. Coming to a crossroads, he stops to ask a telephone repairman whether he has ever seen a little brown bird named Margalo. The repairman has never met her but takes down a description and promises to contact Stuart if he sees her. Stuart announces his intention to get back on the road and go north. The repairman agrees that although any direction is good, there is something special about the north. Stuart drives off toward the sunrise.