SPEEDY SAM Dorothy Joan Harris Toronto, Scholastic-TAB, 1989. 64pp, paper, $3.95 ISBN 0-590-73214-5. (Also available in French as Cleo, la souris express). CIP Grades 2 to 4/Ages 7 to 9 Reviewed by Jane Robinson. Volume 18 Number 3 1990 May This inexpensive little paperback from Scholastic-TAB has a number of appealing qualities for both children and adults - one of which has just been mentioned. Dorothy Joan Harris has taken a universally favourite genre, the animal story, and written an entertaining story about believable characters who work together to solve a common problem. That problem is Speedy Sam. He is the mouse that third grader Adam Clark discovers one morning in his kitchen. The problem is compounded when Adam and his mother each have their own ideas about how to catch the mouse and what his ultimate fate is to be. There are some uncertain moments, but it works out well for everyone in the end. Both children and adults will perceive Speedy Sam as a non-threatening "beginning" novel. The seven chapters are short, with large type, and the action is well paced and spiked with the kind of humour and predicaments this age group enjoys. There is, however, a lot of dialogue, which can be cumbersome for reading aloud, and the vocabulary is quite simple, lacking challenge and colour. Children will nonetheless enjoy the story and ii will prompt a number of activities. Jane Robinson, Winnipeg, Man.