Portman, the fierce chief mouse, decided that Siri, the cat, must be belled. All the mice in the house on the waterfront agreed with him — everyone always agreed with Portman. But when Asa and Rambo, the smallest and least important mice, were chosen to bell Siri, Portman’s power, though he didn’t know it, was at an end.

To bell a cat, one must have a collar with a bell on it. After Asa and Rambo finally found a suitable collar, a waterfront cat found them. When they stopped running, the two little mice were on a large ship, floating slowly but steadily away from their problems. But anything can happen on a long ocean voyage — and in this case, it did.

Mary Stolz, well known for her books for teen-agers, has written an exhilarating story for younger readers to which Beni Montresor’s charmingly detailed pictures add further sparkle.

From the dust jacket