"I'm quick and smart as I can be. Try and try, but you can't catch me!" 

 

Mouse Deer sings his song as he walks through the forest looking for tasty fruits and roots and shoots. Though he is small, he is not afraid. He knows that many big animals want to eat him -- but first they have to catch him! 

 

In these delightful trickster tales from Southeast Asia, find out how Mouse Deer gets the best of his enemies -- Tiger, Crocodile, and the most dangerous animal of all, Farmer!

 

TEACHERS AND LIBRARIANS -- A READER'S THEATER SCRIPT OF THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE IN AARON'S BOOK "FOLKTALES ON STAGE," OR FREE ON AARON'S WEB SITE.

 

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Aaron Shepard is the award-winning author of "The Baker's Dozen," "The Sea King's Daughter," "The Monkey King," and many more children's books. His stories have appeared often in Cricket magazine, while his Web site is known internationally as a prime resource for folktales, storytelling, and reader's theater. Once a professional storyteller, Aaron specializes in lively retellings of folktales and other traditional literature, which have won him honors from the American Library Association, the New York Public Library, the Bank Street College of Education, the National Council for the Social Studies, and the American Folklore Society.

 

Kim Gamble is one of the most popular children's book illustrators of Australia. He is also a frequent contributor to that country's much-loved School Magazine, where Aaron's Mouse Deer stories first appeared.