Zapped

by Prudence Breitrose

This is the only current middle-grade book that stars gerbils in a sci-fi, entertaining tale.

Gerbils are the smartest of all rodents, but they feel disrespected. They’ve never starred in children’s books, so you never hear about gerbils rescuing princesses, like Despereaux, or driving cars, like Stuart Little. And there’s no Mickey Gerbil.
One group of proud, free gerbils finds a way they might change all that, and win respect from the rodent world. But it all depends on Joe, a ten-year old boy. His dad has just invented the Nanozap, a machine that can shrink anything to gerbil size, and open the way to a glorious future.

Will they have to shrink him, to reach their goal?

Paperback

Published June 1, 2023

About the author

Grew up in Winnie-The-Pooh country. Studied modern languages at Cambridge University, then went into journalism on magazines (including one for children under six)and newspapers, then into British television as a producer and director.

After moving to California and marrying a Stanford professor, I worked as a writer in health education until I had a dream that confused computer mice with the real thing, and I started work on Mousenet.