A QUIET, STEADY YOUNG RODENT, Chester gets the call to serve when his dim-witted cousin accidently starts a fire by chewing through a wire in the wall of their household. Impressed with the confident, efficient, noble midshipmice who respond to the emergency, Chester realizes that there is more to life than being a regular house mouse, and vows to join the Naval Mouse Academy.
Unfortunately, life doesn’t always go the way you plan, no matter how methodically you go about it! An injury and a close call with the notorious “water rat” leaves Chester at the bottom of the academy’s list of candidates. But with the support from his family, including his veteran grandfather, Chester puts in night after night of “toilet training”—healing his wounds while learning to swim—and barely makes the cut.
This charming story follows Chester and his comical nest mates, as well as their unsuspecting human counterparts in the Rooms Below the rafters, as they endure the rigors of the legendary Plebe Summer. Even though the humans consider the mice pests rather than comrades, they share the same joys and challenges as they overcome adversity, escape catastrophe, and learn life’s lessons of friendship, teamwork, leadership, courage, duty, honor, and service to others.
