Bent Northrop Memorial Library

With a dozen stories, some more clearly connected than others but all set in the same farmhouse on Cape Cod from the time of the British blockade to the present, Hoffman creates a continuous narrative built up through a sense of place.

A little brown mouse encourages Emily, who is distressed by the creaks and squeaks in her house, to fill it with a variety of animals--a tabby cat, a puppy dog, a black sheep, a billy goat, a brown cow, and a turtle dove--with chaotic results.