The Church Mice & The Moon

The third entry in Graham Oakley's series of picture-books about the adventures and misadventures of a group of English church mice and their cat companion, The Church Mice and the Moon sees Arthur and Humphrey kidnapped by two rather nefarious scientists bent on sending them to the moon. It falls to Sampson the cat to sabotage the astronautical mission and rescue them, a task he accomplishes most inadvertently, while seeking a warm place to nap...

Like The Church Mouse and The Church Cat Abroad, this offered an engaging story paired with charming illustrations. The "science" behind the mission to the moon is nonexistent, but then, Oakley is clearly writing a fantasy. The humor is quite pointed here, particularly when the two scientists show more see an angel in their transmission from "space," and while I enjoyed their very evident discomfort and denial, I had to wonder if the author was setting up some kind of false "science vs. faith" dichotomy. The artwork is as detailed as in the previous two titles, although many of the human figures have a distinctly seventies appearance. All in all, despite my enjoyment, The Church Mice and the Moon felt a little dated to me. show less

In the third book of the Church Mice series, Arthur and Humphrey are abducted by two low-life scientists to be used as test subjects for a moon flight and it is up to Sampson to save them. The majority of the mice are not in most of this book, so there is a lack of what are usually the best scenes where you stare a a crowd of mice to see all the little different things each of them are doing, although there are still a few to enjoy. And there is still much comic detail to look out for in the other illustrations. The edition I have doesn't have the usual wrap-around cover which is disappointing, I feel I am missing half an illustration for this particular book! I like the anti-animal testing theme of this book too. Something that I have show more noticed on this particular read-through is how the jokey exaggerated newspaper headlines are the same sort of thing we get nowadays. Apparently nothing has changed in nearly fifty years. (It is funny seeing seventies fashions though.) Something I haven't mentioned yet in these reviews is how much I love that the title page and end page of each book are bonus illustrations of the mice mucking about. There is just so much love and effort and attention put into every page of these books. show less

I think Graham Oakley is wonderful. This is my favorite of the Church Mice books. It is just hilarious! The illustration is remarkable, often commenting on the text in a laugh out loud way. I'm so sad that these are not still easily available. Graham Oakley died recently, such a great loss to the world. I'm searching out and reading again all that I can find.