The old barn was abandoned. Only a rat named Orris lived there.
Chapter One: Not AloneThe rat had made himself a nest from the pages of discarded books.
Arranged around the nest were his treasures: a foil-wrapped Top-Notch Butterscotch candy, a velvet slipper, a yellow marble, and an Imperial sardine can with a picture of a fish king on its label.
Orris lived alone.
But he was not alone.
At the end of each day, an owl named Timble visited the barn.
Timble came at dusk. He sat in the barn window and called, “Orris? Orris?”
The rat left his nest. He went and joined the owl.
The rat and the owl sat side by side in the window of the barn.
They talked.
Timble told Orris what he had seen as he flew through the world.
And Orris told Timble stories and facts and poems he had read in the old books left in the barn.
The rat and the owl talked of trees and rivers, planets and stars, princesses and kings.
Sometimes, they didn’t talk.
Sometimes, they simply sat together and looked up at the stars.
The rat and the owl were friends.
Copyright © 2026 by Kate DiCamillo; Illustrated by Carmen Mok. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
