#11-'The Rescuers', by Margery Sharp-very cute!
#11 was "The Rescuers", by Margery Sharp and illustrated by the always wonderful Garth Williams. This is the book they based the movies on; it's different in plot, but close enough in tone and characterizations that the changes aren't bothersome for a canon stickler like me.
Basically, mice are duty-bound to befriend and aid prisoners wherever they are. So when the Prisoner's Aid Society heard about the poet locked up in the Black Castle, well, they had to DO something. Thus, poor Bernard is browbeaten, I mean "requested" into pleading with the pampered and beautiful (but never stuck-up or rude-she's a LADY!) Miss Bianca to get involved; Nils the rugged sailor mouse volunteers to help out with the translations; and a cunning plan is...desperately needed.
Very cute story, comical and arch in tone, and yet I really did end up turning the pages to find out whether or not Mamelouk the cat would get to EAT the brave Rescuers before they managed to get that poet out of there. The bits where Miss Bianca, too sheltered to be afraid of cats, "plays" with Mamelouk are especially amusing, and the pictures by Garth Williams are darling. The book is supposed to be for kids, I think, but it's just as enjoyable by adults.