The Greatest Gift by Kallie George is a cosy Heartwood Hotel story for 7 year olds about a mouse maid who’s never been given a present in her life.<\/p>\n
Mona the mouse arrived at the Heartwood Hotel in the autumn, alone and soaking wet. Now it’s winter and the hotel is her home. It’s built inside a great tree in Fernwood Forest, and most of the guests are tucked up hibernating in suites among the roots.<\/p>\n
Mona has already had one big adventure here (she helped save the hotel from wolves), but it’s easy to pick up from this one.<\/p>\n
At the staff’s St Slumber supper, Mona is given a whole pile of presents. An apron that finally fits her, with a slightly lopsided heart sewn on by her best friend Tilly. A beautiful walnut case from Mr Heartwood. She’s so happy she can hardly speak. But she hasn’t got anything for anyone else, because nobody told her!<\/p>\n
Then winter gets busy. A sleepy groundhog mutters a warning about danger. The snow piles higher. A very grand and very rude rabbit called Duchess Hazeline checks in and demands the lobby rug for her room (and then ruins it). And food starts disappearing from the storage room.<\/p>\n
Mona decides to make a secret gift for everyone. But keeping a secret from your best friend is hard. Have you ever been so busy planning a surprise that someone thought you’d gone off them? That’s what starts to happen with Tilly.<\/p>\n
It’s a gentle, kind story about friendship and giving, with a small mystery ticking along underneath. Mr Heartwood speaks in rhymes. There are spiderwebs shaped like snowflakes and a countdown calendar to spring called Days till the Dews. The little details are what make it (a porcupine cook who stirs soup with her new spoon, anyone?).<\/p>\n
Mona’s parents died in a storm when she was very small, and Tilly lost her family to coyotes. Both are mentioned as sad things from the past rather than events in this book.<\/p>\n
If they love Mona’s world, Kallie George also wrote Clover’s Luck, about a girl who’s sure she’s the unluckiest person alive, until she finds a faded notice in the Woods asking for volunteers at an animal adoption agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Greatest Gift by Kallie George is a cosy Heartwood Hotel story for 7 year olds about a mouse maid who’s never been given a present in her life. Mona the mouse arrived at the Heartwood Hotel in the autumn, alone and soaking wet. Now it’s winter and the hotel is her home. It’s built […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12587,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8013,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Clover's Luck","lr_seo_hook":"A mouse maid plans secret gifts for everyone in a snowbound tree hotel."},"book_tag":[25],"age_group":[19],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[523],"class_list":["post-7616","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-friendship-books","age_group-books-for-7-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-kallie-george"],"yoast_title":"Heartwood Hotel – The Greatest Gift by Kallie George | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A mouse maid plans secret gifts for everyone in a snowbound tree hotel. For ages 7+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n