Who Moved My Cheese, By Spencer Johnson

Who Moved My Cheese, by Spencer Johnson is about two mice named Sniff and Scurry and two little people named Hem and Haw. The four of them live in a maze and spend their days scurrying about in the pursuit of cheese; however each of the four has his own unique approach to this hunt. Sniff is extremely good at sniffing out cheese, while Scurry is good at scurrying after newly discovered cheese. Hem and Haw are not so single minded in their cheese pursuit, but rather spend more time thinking about the hunt.

One day the four run into a piece of cheese so large that Hem and Haw declare that they will never again need to search for cheese. They become accustomed to this constant source of cheese and push aside any thought of ever having to find another piece. The two mice, however, never stop exploring the maze and are constantly paying attention to change in their environment. Meanwhile the supply of cheese is slowly running low and one day this chunk of cheese is finally gone and the four are left with nothing. Sniff and Scurry are able to take this new development in stride and scamper off in search of a new cheese source. However, Hem and Haw are not able to cope with such a fast life altering change. Angered and annoyed, they rant at the unfairness of the situation. Later that day they both head home hungry, hoping the cheese will be there tomorrow. There is still no cheese the next day, or the day after that. Haw eventually is able to overcome his fears and follow Sniff and Scurry's lead of wandering off into the maze in search of new cheese, while Hem remains behind, under the delusion that somehow, someway, his cheese will someday be replaced.

Haw is at first frightened by the change but eventually realizes that he is enjoying the change of pace and that the hunt really isn't so bad. Eventually Haw catches up with Sniff and Scurry and the new piece of cheese they had discovered.

The moral of the story is that each of us will experience change at some point in our lives, and we will all deal with it in different ways. Some of us will never let ourselves become satisfied with the status quo and instead will constantly be on the lookout for change in our environment so that we will have advanced warning of impending change. Others will allow themselves