Honza and Dash: In the City of the Big Castle

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad21 “Wait,” said Honza. “I forgot to do something.” Dash stood outside of Honza's home, her hands on her hips and her tail tapping against the ground. “What did you forget?” she called out.

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad20http://bit.ly/smhad20 Dash opened her eyes and frowned. She sat up in her bed, stretched her arms out to the sides and then towards the ceiling of her room. Instead of quickly getting ready for the day as she normally did, she pulled her pillow - made from a cotton ball wrapped in cloth - up behind her back and leaned against the wall. She closed her eyes and thought again about her dream.

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad19 “Alright, here we go!” screamed Flicker as he burst from the ledge of the Tower. He bolted into the air above Old Town Square, looped around the Tower once, and landed in the exact spot he'd launched from a few moments before. “What? Are we done already?” asked Martin, as he slid off of Flicker's back, being careful not to ruffle the bird's feathers.

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad18 Now mice, whether they are from the city like Dash or the country such as Honza, always try to make full use of the warm weather that comes each summer, once the long, cold winter and wet spring are over. They love to run in the tall grass of the green fields, climb the lowest and sometimes even the highest branches on the trees in the parks downtown and float downriver on a leaf or a raft they've built from sticks and mud letting their tails dip in and out of the water to steer. But everything changes when the hottest days of summer arrive.

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad17 Ms. Maggie would not take “no” for an answer. She handed Mr. Green, the grocery mouse, the three pine nuts she carried in a cart on wheels she used for her groceries. “No, Mr. Green. These are worth at least two grapes. And you offer me just one?” Ms. Maggie shook her head with a thin smile spread across her face. “Ms. Maggie. Please, if I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times. A pine nut is worth no more than half a grape. I'll give you one and half grapes for all three.”

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad16 Martin Shortail was not often invited to adventure with his big sister Dash. So when she asked him if he wanted to float the river with Honza and herself, Martin could not contain his excitement. On the day of the Big River Float, as he liked to call it, he was awake and waiting patiently to leave before anyone else in the house was up.

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad15 Honza stretched his arms out to the side then stuck his hands behind his head, making himself a little pillow. He pulled his left foot up and rested it on his knee. Then he leaned back on the tip of the hour hand and stared up at the minute hand of the clock. He watched as the minute hand neared the twelve. “Almost!” he shouted out. The minute hand clicked again. “Just one more minute!”

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad14 Honza bent down to examine a yellow flower, just popping its head through the soil and snow. “Dash, come look at this. It's just a baby. It hasn't even opened its eyes yet.” When Dash didn't respond, Honza left the flower and went off to find her.

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad13 Flicker swooped down and alighted on the window sill. “Alright. Thank you for flying Air Pigeon. Please remember to take all your belongings with you.” Honza and Dash slid from Flicker's back onto the window sill. “Thanks for the ride Flicker. Where should we meet you later?” said Dash.

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad12 Early that morning, Honza quietly walked through Tower Village, slid down the big rope hanging from the bell in the tower, and headed through the double doors which led to the street. Recently, he had made it a habit of taking short walks by himself before anyone else in the Tower was awake.

Get the ebook:http://bit.ly/smhad11 Ms. Maggie, Honza's next door neighbor, stood on one foot on top of a small kitchen stool just outside her door. It wasn't much of a stool at all. It was just a small block of wood. However, to a Tower Mouse, a small block of wood can transform into nearly anything.

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad10 Honza's ears perked up in surprise. “It's okay if you want to take today off,” said Mr. Green, the grocery mouse. “But,” started Honza. “The big family meal is tomorrow. You said we'd need to work extra hard to scrounge enough food for it.”

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad09Winter in the City of the Big Castle is quite the challenge for a Tower Mouse. The mice live off of food they find on the streets or in the trash bins. In the spring and summer, when thousands of people eat at street-side restaurants, scrounging is easy.

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad08Honza is a very brave field mouse. Though he is not from the City of the Big Castle, like his best friend Dash, he has made his home in the village of the Tower mice. His curtains are open today. There must be adventure.

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad07Despite the fact that Honza lived in the City of the Big Castle for many months, he had never actually been to the castle itself. He looked out onto the Big Castle every morning as he sipped tea from his tiny cup, sitting in the window of his home. He looked out onto the Big Castle on the Hill. His view was the best in the city.

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad06In the City of the Big Castle, there are many different kinds of animals. There are your obvious city creatures - such as mice and pigeons. But there is also a whole host of various animal friends living in the City's many parks and green spaces.

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad05And though it can't be seen from the ground, if you look carefully above the 11th hour, there is a little window. This is Honza's window. His curtains are closed. Something is amiss. Flicker fluttered outside of Honza's home, just as the sun came up. “What's this?” he asked himself. Flicker lived alone and so enjoyed talking to himself almost as much as talking to someone else. Almost as much. “Honza should be up by now. Why are his curtains closed?”

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad04Despite being a mouse - and a capable scrounger at that - Honza still struggled with one of the most common places a city mouse finds food: the trash bin. He wasn't a city mouse, at least not yet.

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad03Honza added a small bag of nuts to his pack, slung it over his shoulder and went to meet Dash at her house to leave for their hike. However, when he opened his front door, he discovered a large pool of water had collected on the floor. Next, he found the source of the water...

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad02A loud rumbling shook the entire mouse hole. Honza flew from his pin cushion bed and onto the floor. “What's that?” he yelled out to no one in particular. And no one responded either. He wrapped his tail around thebed post, then pulled himself up off the bare wooden floor and sat on the edge of the bed. He scanned the room for the source of the disruption. But there was no sound. He wiped the sleep from his eyes and looked again. No rumble.

Get the ebook: http://bit.ly/smhad01In the City of the Big Castle, there is a tower just off of Old Town Square. On every side is a clock face. But the western side is the largest. And though it can't be seen from the ground, if you look very closely above the 11th hour, there is a little window. Honza's window. This is the story of how an empty mouse hole became his home.