The Diary of a Church Mouse

This is not my favourite of the brilliant Church Mice series. Here Oakley tries something a bit different, which when you are nine books deep into a series is understandable. This book is laid out as a year-long diary of Humphrey the Schoolmouse. For the first time we see a first-hand account of their adventures. This really allows Oakley to do what I suspect is his favourite thing, having the pictures juxtapose the text. Pretty much the whole book works off this joke (which is a sublime joke). Because it is set over a whole year, there isn't really a plot though. And because Humphrey is arrogant and mean, I don't particularly want to be his captive audience. Also due to being diary entries the pages are laid out a little odd. Nearly show more every left-hand page is a full-page illustration, with smaller ones dotted about on the right page. The right-hand pictures are in the correct narrative positions, but the left-hand one could be mentioned absolutely anywhere on the right page, so you have to sort of try to ignore it until you get to the relevant bit of text before getting to pore over it. Also the illustrations seem to have changed ever so slightly in style. It's still really good (a wonderful satire of keeping a diary), it's just not the best of the series in my opinion, but I'm sure others might love it best of all for being a bit different. show less

Summary:
This book is written as a diary from the church Muse. It follows his daily activities for about a year.

Personal Reaction:
This book is very wordy, and a little hard to follow. I would not recommend this book to be read aloud.

Classroom extension ideas:
1. Students could write their own daily diary.

2. The class could review the book, and talk about how the book could be made better.