The Church Mice at Christmas

The seventh entry in Graham Oakley's series of picture-books devoted to the adventures of a group of church mice and their cat companion, The Church Mice at Christmas sees Arthur and Humphrey determined to raise the money they need to throw a Christmas party. When their efforts to raffle Sampson off prove less than successful, and their caroling venture ends in disaster, they find that an unexpected encounter with a most unusual Santa Claus does the trick...

After my experiences with the previous installment of the series, The Church Mice at Bay, I wasn't sure I wanted to keep on with these books. But having enjoyed the first five titles, and having already checked this out of the library, I decided to give it a try. I'm glad that I did, show more as this sees a return to the warm-hearted humor I have come to associate with the Church Mice books. The burglar-Santa Claus, with his bag of swag - that is to say, presents - was a particularly nice touch. A lovely little holiday tale for fans of the series! show less

The seventh book in the Church Mice series sees our heroes trying to celebrate Christmas but being constantly foiled. This is another that I had as a kid so I have a massive soft spot for it. Probably just the mood I was in reading this time around (about the sixtieth time I've read it in my life probably) but the second half is a bit of a downer (don't worry of course there is a happy ending). The poor mice try so HARD to have something nice and humans just keep messing it up for them. Poor little guys. As usual it is beautiful and funny and Oakley is a genius.

This is an excellent example of a fantasy book. The mice characters in this story are very believable but they are talking mice which is an unrealistic aspect. The mice, the setting and the plot are all believable within the context of the story.
Art Media: watercolors
Appropriate Age: Primary and Intermediate