Today it's Field mice...

I swear, I'm NOT stacking these books up on purpose on my desk.

Really.

It is just a major coincidence that I've had four books in the last week that are children's picture books about mice.

However, I was right that a nice collection of mice books could appear if one started looking.

This particular book has illustrations by Erik Blegved and the mice (and the other animals) are very detailed and anatomically correct in their depictions. I wish that the interior illustrations were in color as well as the front dust jacket, but it's not to be.

I just checked my database and I have 150 books with mice listed as a keyword -- now that was a general look and some of them are duplicates and not all of them are children's picture books, but the majority are. 150 books! And I'm sure that's not even the tip of the Mice / Mouse collecting iceberg. Now that I'm looking for them (not for a collection of my own, you understand... I've got plenty of books already piling up) but as a new thing to think about as I'm going about my daily business.

I'd love to hear what other types of books you people collect.

When I'm at book fairs I talk to customers about their collections and am always surprised -- and hear about collections that are new to me & sometimes ones that I would never have imagined. That information is both really enjoyable to hear about, but also good for me to know when I'm out scouting...

Any takers?

Let me know!

So many cute illustrated mice out there...

John S. Goodall is the illustrator of this wonderful little book -- he has published several books about Shrewbettina (who may be a shrew, not a mouse, but there ARE mousies in the book and on the dust jacket as well).

WONDERFUL delicate illustrations. And, to top it off, it's a book with no words. You just look at the pictures to get the story.

I originally entered this book in my database last September (for a book fair) -- put it on hold so I could offer it at the fair ... and because it was a last minute buy, didn't have any detailed description added to my database. Today, I pulled it off a shelf to put in the box for the next book fair & found out it was STILL on hold -- no wonder it didn't sell. I thought I was getting better about that sort of thing!

Here's another wonderful mouse book:



This is the second book I've featured by Palmer Brown (remember, he only wrote and illustrated four books in his career as an book illustrator). Palmer Brown's artwork is so delicate, so wonderfully deft and without excess color or lines that I could stare at it all day. In some ways, it reminds me of Tasha Tudor's illustrations. But Palmer Brown is NOT Tasha Tudor and one mouse book is not the same as another mouse book. Of course, the best way to find this out is to start collecting books illustrated with mice...

Enjoy.

The Church Mice are at it again...

Darn it -- the camera took a blury picture again. I'll have to fix it, but not today (we're in the midst of Easter vacation and much of my time is spent doing kid stuff this week. The retakes will have to wait for next week).

I only learned about the Church Mice series about three years ago when I picked up a paperback copy and sold it almost instantaneously. Hmmm...(I thought) what's so good about this book? It's not one I remember from my childhood. Granted, I didn't actually read lots of picture books when I was young. I started on chapter books fairly early on & never went back. I didn't find the picture books of much use at the time. Now, though, I have had that aha! moment regarding picture books & finally GET them.

The Church Mice series by Graham Oakley is one of thos Aha! series. Starting the series off, THE CHURCH MICE are two mice (named Arthur and Humphrey), along with a veritable host of other mice who live in a church in England, and who help a stray cat by the name of Sampson become a member of their group -- with the strict understanding that their friendship means that Sampson would never EAT any of the mice.

Currently, there are fourteen books in the series (The Church Mice was published in 1972 and the last so far, The Church Mice Take a Break, was published in 2000). Graham Oakley has written and illustrated several other books beside the Church Mouse series and has illustrated a host of other books for other authors over the years, but it is this whimsical series about adventurous mice that have become classics favorites.

If you haven't seen or read one, do so.