Picture Books: O is for Outstanding Oakley

My absolute favorite picture books of all time are Graham Oakley's Church Mouse books. 

The Church Mouse books relate the adventures of Arthur, a church mouse, who is friends with Sampson, the church cat, yet Arthur wants more mice friends. So he invites mice families in the town to come stay in the church. Alongside Sampson and the schoolmaster mouse, who is eventually named Humphrey, they form an ongoing community. 

The series is very, very British. 

For one, the text rely on the images and vice versa. For instance, when Arthur gets his great idea to fetch other mice to live in the church, the text tells us, "[Arthur got his idea] when he was reading." The image shows us that he was reading...

Exodus! 

Well, of course.

The details are perfect--the sleeping man in church!

There are also intensely British jokes. Like something out of Monty-Python, the narrator tells us that the mice performed tasks in the church for cheese, and "[a] vote was taken on what kinds of cheese the parson would buy." 

The results: Cheddar, Cheshire, Wensleydale, Caerphilly, "something with holes in it," walnut whirls, and "one for Afghanistan goat's milk cheese. That was ignored because it was only the schoolmaster trying to be clever." 

The schoolmaster (Humphrey) is also a very British character: the sarcastic smart-aleck who annoys people but is often right. He is kind of full of himself and argues against straightforward solutions, such as when Arthur and Sampson go to confront a burglar, but he figures out how to rouse the townspeople before anyone else. 

The pictures as well as the stories are utterly hilarious. 

If I ever collect the books (there are 12 total), I would likely aim for the older editions with the full cover illustrations than the more recent editions. 

Recent

Classic cover!