The Ups and Downs of the Castle Mice

by Michael Bond, Emily Sutton (Illustrations)

From the creator of Paddington Bear comes a tale of dastardly villains and unlikely tiny heroes...

The Perk family live in a doll's house in a castle. The castle is their home - but when someone new with devious plans comes to rule the roost, will our family of mice come up trumps?

Full of humour and warmth, this nostalgic tale by Michael Bond is brought to life with exquisite detail by Emily Sutton.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books

32 pages, Paperback

Published August 6, 2020

About the author

Michael Bond, CBE was an English children's author. He was the creator of Paddington Bear and wrote about the adventures of a guinea pig named Olga da Polga, as well as the animated BBC TV series The Herbs. Bond also wrote culinary mystery stories for adults featuring Monsieur Pamplemousse and his faithful bloodhound, Pommes Frites.

Reviews

[Cw]

such a cute story and lovely illustrations

[Hilary]

I thought this was going to be a five star read, the story was gripping from the start and Emily Sutton's illustrations are beautiful. Some mice live in a castle that is occupied by owners who give tours to keep the castle going. When an evil person takes over whilst the owners are away she runs a competition to make lots of money from the castle and plans to run away with it. The large mouse family that live in a doll's house overhears what she is doing and seek to foil her evil plan. I thought they might lock her up, take the money and hide it, give the money to the poor. No, they eat it, what a waste. The storyline was really fun until that point.

Despite the disappointing conclusion there were some really lovely illustrations, some beautiful double page spreads, one shows the dolls house and you can spot the mice peeping out.

A book I would recommend getting out of the library, but due to the conclusion this didn't rate more highly for me and it's not one I would buy.

[Raeder]

In a past life I was these cunty mice 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

[Priyanka Dharmapalan]

The illustrations are wonderfully whimsical, magical and full of intricate detail. The doll house especially is so beautiful that you can’t help but wish you could live inside it.