By E. B. White
A New York family has a second son who happens to be a mouse, and he sails toy boats, drives a tiny car, and sets off up the highway to find the bird he loves.
The Littles are an ordinary New York family, except their younger son Stuart is only two inches tall and looks a great deal like a mouse. That doesn't slow him down. He sails a model schooner in a Central Park pond, takes over a classroom for a day as substitute teacher, and when a little bird named Margalo he's grown to love disappears, he climbs into a tiny car and heads north to look for her.
It's the other White classic, and it reads a chapter at a time like it was built for it — most chapters are their own small escapade, a boat race, a day teaching school, a night that goes wrong, so your child finishes each one with a whole little story in hand. The tone is dry and gentle and a bit grown-up in the best way. Fair warning, it's the same wise, wistful voice as Charlotte's Web, so it earns its place on a shelf of first real novels.