What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Mystery in the Night Woods
This topic is about Mystery in the Night Woods
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SOLVED: Children's/YA > SOLVED. Children's Fiction, mouse accused of a crime gets sent to an island prison, weasel sings about soup. [s]

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message 1: by Highway (new)

Highway | 4 comments I definitely read this in the early 2000s, probably after 2005 and most likely before 2010, but I don't think it was new at the time.
It was a children's chapter book and fairly thin, probably between 100-200 pages, but it could have been fewer.

The protagonist was a mouse, I think a man, and he lived in a forest with a lot of other talking animals. Some sort of crime occurs and he's accused of having committed it, and is brought before a court.

As a punishment he's sent to an island surrounded by so much water it would be impossible to swim off of. On the prison there's also a weasel(I think, there were like sketchy black and white drawings and I think this character was kind of long like a weasel). The only food the prisoners get to eat is soup and the weasel absolutely is sick of it and sings a song about how much he hates soup, i think the drawing had him throwing cans of soup to the ground.

The weasel also tricks the mouse into digging a tunnel under the island to get to shore, and the mouse almost drowns because of this. This happens about halfways through the book but is as far as I can remember.
Any help finding this would be greatly appreciated!!

I know it's not any of the Redwall books and it's not Abel's Island either


message 3: by Highway (new)

Highway | 4 comments Rainbowheart wrote: "The Crystal Prison?

The Ruby of Carminel?

The Spies of Gerander?"


Thank you very much for these suggestions but unfortunately I don't any are it. Magic wasn't an element in the story so that eliminates the first two, and as for the third one I'm certain it took place in the same relative vicinity, and the description for that mentions climbing mountains


Asia | Adventures with Asia Minor (booknerd117) | 210 comments Highly, highly doubt this, but it kinda reminds me a bit of The Tale of Despereaux


message 6: by Andy (new)

Andy | 2124 comments I think I read this one when I was a kid in the late 1970s. Ruth Chew maybe?


message 7: by Highway (new)

Highway | 4 comments Asia wrote: "Highly, highly doubt this, but it kinda reminds me a bit of The Tale of Despereaux"

Yeah I know i never read Despereaux as a kid. I don't think there were humans in this book but if they were they weren't like, important to the plot or anything.


message 8: by Ayshe (new)

Ayshe | 4721 comments Mystery in the Night Woods maybe? I looked at the book on archive.org: https://archive.org/details/mysteryin... and the weasel does hate soup: "Barley soup, bean soup, tomato soup too. I hate soup, and so will you." Each time he circled the stack of cans he threw one of them into the creek."


message 9: by Andy (new)

Andy | 2124 comments Andy wrote: "I think I read this one when I was a kid in the late 1970s. Ruth Chew maybe?"

I can't find a Ruth Chew book that fits, but I remember this one. Did the mouse try to escape the island through a tunnel and come up in the water?


message 10: by Highway (last edited Jun 19, 2020 05:36PM) (new)

Highway | 4 comments Ayshe wrote: "Mystery in the Night Woods maybe? I looked at the book on archive.org: https://archive.org/details/mysteryin... and the weasel does hate soup: "Barley soup, bean soup, toma..."

Yes yes yes!!
This is 100%% it thank you so so much i've been looking for this for years!!
I have no idea why I thought the main character was a mouse haha


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