The Church Mouse--Back in Print!

I've been on a brief hiatus while we finished up the school year at home, but I'm back with fantastic news--Graham Oakley's The Church Mouse will be republished in the United States in September 2010! (At this point, insert a mental image of me doing my happy dance!) Readers of this blog know that I have been begging and pleading for this book, and the subsequent titles in the series, to be reissued for a new audience to enjoy--not to mention those old foggies like myself who simply adore them. And my prayers have been answered! Kane Miller Books, which has been steadily introducing high quality books from around the world to an appreciative American audience, are bringing The Church Mouse to our shores. I certainly hope the rest of the series won't be far behind.

If you are not familiar with the Church Mouse series, here is a brief synopsis: Arthur is a mouse who lives in the church of a busy, unnamed English town. Living is good for Arthur, mainly because he is on friendly terms with Samson, the church cat. Samson is no mouser, after a lifetime of listening to sermons about brotherly love and the meek being blessed. But Arthur is often lonely, being the sole mouse in the church. When he comes upon the idea to invite all of the mice in town to come and live in the church (and here is an example of Oakley's visual wit--Arthur is reading "Exodus" at the time of his inspiration,) no one seems to mind; not unlike the mice who befriend the Disney Cinderella, these rodents are a dab hand at housework.

But it's not all smooth sailing for Arthur, Samson, and the new inhabitants of the church. When a Harvest Festival mishap seems to spell banishment for the mice, they are able to prove their worth to the congregants and ensure their permanent residency as church mice all.

When I read the Church Mice books, I am always struck by Graham Oakley's love for his craft. His experience as a set designer has served him well as a picture book creator. The impressive amount of detail in his illustrations is never wasted. In a double page spread of the church sanctuary where chaos has just reigned, the reader will get as much amusement from the old man sat in the back pew who slept through the whole kerfuffle, as they will from the expressions on the faces of the angry congregants and the crestfallen mice. Each illustration offers so much to look at and enjoy, that it's impossible not to return to these books. They are a joy to read and share, and just as much of a joy to read alone. When I want to show patrons that picture books are not just for kids (har har,) I show them the church mice books. In the past, my church mice books have been held together with an awful lot of binding tape and crossed fingers. What a pleasure to be able to show them a new, pristine edition of this classic.

My work here is done......

Many thanks to Kane Miller Books, who provided me with a copy of the book to preview. They didn't make me beg too much ;)

My Favorite Rant: The Church Mouse

As I'm catching up on the pile of professional periodicals in my in-tray (a quicker task than it might sound, since I've already read half of each issue on-line,) I came across this article from Publisher's Weekly about the rising cache in Hollywood of picture books as vehicles for full-length motion pictures. Both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Where the Wild Things Are did well enough in 2009 to ensure that more picture books will find their way to the big screen. And as filmmakers try to strike the right balance between name recognition and adaptable storytelling, can I please put forward my hobby-horse, as it were, for consideration: Graham Oakley's The Church Mouse. I've written before about my complete and utter amazement that this book, and the corresponding series, has gone out of print. And although I'm not always a fan of film adaptations of beloved books, this is a situation where the exposure afforded by Hollywood might be just the thing this book needs to get it back in the public eye.

And for a filmmaker, what's not to love? It is a more sophisticated story than your average picture book aimed at the 4-8 age bracket, so there is no need to fluff it up for a 90 minute time-frame. There are loads of characters--perfect for attracting an A-list of celebrity voices--which eliminates the need of creating additional characters for the screen. The numerous sequels lend themselves to franchise building. The all-animal cast will appeal to everyone, as will the story of the Church Mouse and his friend, the cat Samson, who has listened to so many sermons about brotherly love that he cannot eat the mice living in the church. The hijinks! The bucolic English setting! The CGI possabilities abound! If there are any interns trawling the cybersphere for cinematic inspiration, look no further than The Church Mouse. And if there are any publishers thinking to bring back a classic, PLEASE bring these books back! I can't mend my copies any more than I already have, and the secondary market is prophibitive.

Lost Treasures--The Church Mice books by Graham Oakley

One of the many joys of my job as a librarian is, of course, the opportunity to work with books. Although every book is sacred, to borrow a phrase from Monty Python, there are times when I have to do what's known as weeding--get rid of old, dirty, and (sadly) unread books. Weeding hurts but, like digging out a splinter, is necessary (and, like the laundry, seemingly never ending!) Who wants to borrow a filthy book that looks like it's contagious--and I don't mean with the love of learning. Some books are worn out because they are so popular and have been read and adored by countless patrons. These are pulled out with a clean conscience, safe in the knowledge that they are books which have served their purpose and had a satisfying book existence. You order a new copy. All is right with the universe.

Then there are those books that have been loved to pieces, and really need to be replaced, but--oh no!--they are out of print. What to do? There are only so many times you can glue and tape and recover and rebind a book before it really has to go. At that point you pray to the book gods that someone in their right mind will see fit to reissue that book, so that such difficult decisions need never have to be made again.

The Church Mice books are just the sort of books I am talking about. PLEASE! Somebody reissue them!

If you have not yet read the Church Mice books--quick!--get yourself to your local library and look for them, before they fall apart from years of love and have to be withdrawn. Because I guarantee these books have not been sitting on the shelf ignored for the last thirty years. The inaugural volume, The Church Mouse, tells the story of Arthur and Sampson, a mouse and a ginger tabby cat who live in the vestry at St. John's Church, Wortlethorpe, England. They are soon joined by every mouse in the city. Despite the fact that cat and mouse are mortal enemies, they are all good friends, because Sampson has listened to so many sermons about brotherly love that he would never dream of harming the mice--although it is just such a dream which nearly proves to be the rodents' undoing in one of the many hilarious, detailed picture sequences later in the book. These books are jam packed with droll humor in one of the most successful marriages of words and images in the history of Children's Literature (I kid you not!) Picture books are so often reduced to ABC's and 123's and considered "for babies." Not so in this case! These stories are to picture books what BBC comedies are to TV. They are a joy to read and a joy to look at with more hidden treats and puzzles than a Where's Waldo anthology. The Church Mouse and its sequels elevated the craft of the picture book to a level of sublimity not often seen in the age of celebrity books and cartoon knock-offs, and if there is any justice in this world, they will be reissued sometime soon. Let the campaign start here!