12. The Church Mouse. Graham Oakley. 1972. 40 pages. [Source: Bought] [5 stars, picture book, animal fantasy]
First sentence: In a busy little town, not very far away, there is a church and in the church there lived a mouse whose name was Arthur.
Premise/plot: Arthur, the mouse, lives in a church. He is thankful for his situation; it is safe thanks to the church cat, Sampson, being so biblically sound and prone to meekness and loving his neighbor. But he is lonely for other mice. So he becomes a mouse on a mission and recruits other mice to come and join him at the church--with the full blessing of the parson. In exchange for helping out around the church, the parson will pay the mice in cheese. Heaven on earth essentially for these mice. But will his plan succeed?
My thoughts: I loved, loved, loved this one! I loved the story and the characters and the illustrations! I loved the little details. It is text-heavy. It may be a picture book, but, it is a picture book for older readers. I think it would work as a read aloud in very small groups. BUT I do think you'd need a good amount of attention span since it is a lot of text. Highly recommend.
