The Mouse that Cancelled Christmas by Madeleine Cook and Samara Hardy
When you think there can't possibly be a different way to tell a Christmas story for children, along comes Madeleine Cook and Samara Hardy with a tale of a mouse who was once injured at Christmas time. A falling bauble hit poor mouse and that was enough to convince mouse that Christmas meant danger. Mouse dons his hard-hat and high-visibility jacket to inspect the animal's village Christmas preparations. In true health and safety style, nothing is up to scratch: the star is too pointy; the tree too tall and the lights are too bright on the tree, not to even mention the spikiness of the pine needles. Quite frankly, Christmas is jolly well too dangerous, so mouse wants it cancelled.
| The Mouse that Cancelled Christmas by Madeleine Cook and Samara Hardy | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Tony Taylor
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| Summary: A delightfully funny and entertaining story of a health and safety obsessed mouse who wants to cancel Christmas – it's just too dangerous. A lovely book for sharing and it will make adults laugh too. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 32 | Date: October 2016 |
| Publisher: OUP Oxford | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0192744296 | |
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This is such a clever idea for a Christmas story. Children will find the story really funny and what's more, adults will too. We have all been at work and had some clip-board holding health and safety inspector tell us why something we have been doing for years can no longer be done. Mouse is just like that and even the notion of singing songs about open fires is a clear violation. It is fantastic when a child's book genuinely makes adults laugh as well and this book certainly does.
Samara Hardy has brilliantly illustrated this book. With his bright yellow high-vis jacket and hard-hat, the mouse really pops out of each page. There are lots of animals on each page, all getting up to festive related activities, so there is plenty to look at with children. Red shiny lettering on the front cover, with mouse carrying his yellow and black hazard tape, make this an attractive cover which will definitely be eye-catching for young children. The position and style of the font is well thought through to visually capture the storytelling. The words shape around snowballs or change size and style to show emphasis or movement. This adds to the enchantment of the book as each page is unique to that particular part of the story and will get young children linking the words to the pictures.
What's more, there is a separate little story told on each page for the robin perched on a branch. This additional feature further enhances the delight in the story and gives it an extra-special touch. Children will like the robin as much as they do the health and safety crazed mouse.
For further reading, I would suggest the latest in the Claude books by Alex T Smith and this is another Christmas delight: Santa Claude.
The Mouse that Cancelled Christmas by Madeleine Cook and Samara Hardy is in the Top Ten Children's Picture Books 2016.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Mouse that Cancelled Christmas by Madeleine Cook and Samara Hardy at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Mouse that Cancelled Christmas by Madeleine Cook and Samara Hardy at Amazon.com.
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