The will to live burns fiercely in us, and the instinct for survival is strong. In this lyrical tale, renowned essayist Wendell Berry gives us Whitefoot, a mouse who lived "on the briary edge of a wooded hollow." Whitefoot's days are simple and busy; guided by instinct, she looks for food, she looks for shelter, she stays out of danger.

"She lived at the center of the world," Berry writes. "This is one of the things every mouse knows. Wherever she was, she was at the center of the world. ... of this she had no doubt." And of this we all have no doubt, for this is where we all live.

What happens, though, when the center of Whitefoot's world begins to shift? When the rains come, she finds herself clinging to a log and bobbing down what might be a stream and might be a river and might be an ocean.

While Berry clearly has affection for Whitefoot, he does not anthropomorphize her. She is a mouse, and she reacts to her environment the way a mouse would. Delicate, detailed drawings by Davis Te Selle show us the world, and its dangers, from a mouse-eye point of view.

LAURIE HERTZEL