Humphrey Hits the Jackpot

The Church Mice #11

by Graham Oakley

Sampson and the church mice are busy blackberrying in the churchyard when they find a lost lottery ticket. Humphrey quickly "tidies" it away to his special hiding place. He later discovers he is the jackpot winner and is soon to be several million pounds richer - or will he?

Genres: Picture Books

Paperback

First published June 1, 1999

About the author

Graham Oakley is a children's book author and illustrator, most active during the 1960s to 1980s. He is best known for the Church Mice series and also illustrated many book covers in the 60s.

For the current UK author of children's books at Top That! press see Graham Oakley.

Reviews

[LJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The penultimate Church Mice book is not one of my absolute favourites, though you can never go far wrong with one of Graham Oakley's beautiful and funny picture books. Humphrey, the most conceited of the mice, comes across a winning lottery ticket and quickly... well does exactly what you'd expect Humphrey to do if he came into a few million. The reason it is not one of my favourites is because it focuses mostly on just Humphrey, and a scene of one mouse is inherently less entertaining than a scene of twenty mice. Usually we at least get Arthur too and then you can see them play off each other. A single mouse is just visually less interesting. However there is an excellent scene in which in order to rescue Humphrey, the mice just join him and of course we humans can't tell them apart. A tiny sidenote that really doesn't matter, but in one scene Humphrey says he is six years old and we can see the date is 1997. Which would mean he was born in 1991. Except the Church Mice series started in the 1970s. So that doesn't make any sense. Still, this time, the Vestry Roof Fund finally gets some help so that's nice. Another semi-classic.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the later books in Graham Oakley's Church Mice series, and while it is still very funny, I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I did some of the earlier books.
Humphrey comes by a winning lottery ticket and goes on a spending spree. Unfortunately for him, the powers that be in the lottery organisation decree that Humphrey, while old for a mouse at six years of age, is nonetheless too young to buy a ticket. Suddenly Humphrey finds himself in trouble with the shopkeepers and the law! Fortunately for Humphrey, the parson comes to the rescue by finding the real owner of the lottery ticket...

[Salsabrarian]

Humphrey comes across what turns out to be a winning lottery ticket that an elderly woman lost after tripping over a dog chasing a cat. Humphrey becomes a celebrity and decides to “support the shopkeepers†by ordering all kinds of things--before he’s gotten the check! The lottery authorities say he can’t win because he’s only six, (conveniently avoiding the fact that he’s also a mouse!). The shopkeepers are mad because they haven’t been paid. The parson finally determines that the real ticket holder must be found in order to settle the mess. Very amusing book, lots of humor to appreciate by adults. Love the illustration where all the women in town show up to claim the ticket--a lot of men obviously wearing dresses!