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The Mice of Nibbling Village |
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"Within your own home
Quiet as the rain-drops
And light as sea-foam,
Under the floorboards
On delicate toes,
Mice run through the village
That no one else knows." |
This is a {tag book} of charming {tag verse} and delightfully detailed watercolour illustrations. It takes the reader into the hidden world of the {tag mice} who inhabit the secret village of Mouse Nibbling. It follows the villagers through their daily routines of cooking, cleaning, reading, preparing for a ball and, of course, eating.
In places the verse is a bit awkward, often unnecessarily so; also, there's a very marked emphasis on the timidity of mice when a bit more exploration of their cleverness and audacity would have given the book a better balance. Overall, however, this is a lovely little book which brings the world inhabited by characters such as Timothy Squeak and Dimity Moppet cleverly to life through both the {tag poetry} and the Victorianesque paintings.
Although aimed at an audience from preschool to grade 2, this book can be enjoyed by anyone who enjoys light poetry and simple rhymes. |
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Mike Hammer meets the Hobbit (with a dash of Nero Wolfe for spice). This is the first book chronicling the adventures of {tag Garrett}, P.I., Confidental Agent and general trouble magnet. With the Dead Man as a partner, and a half dark-elf (and contract killer) as a best friend , Garrett bobs and weaves his way through a host of fantasy enemies. During his quest to track down the woman who has inherited a fortune in silver from his old military buddy, he encounters a host of obstacles, from centaurs through packs of carnivorous unicorns to vampires. Although this book is set in a {tag fantasy} realm, it has a grounded sense of realism (the corrupt and incompetent rulers) along with a sly and understated sense of humour ("Rose cackled like a hen laying a square egg." p.8). The story starts in a {tag medieval}-style city with minimal law enforcement, and progresses through the outskirts of a war that has been fought for generations; the poignancy of the senseless waste and loss of life for the sake of greed provides a subtle emotional underpinning, and gives the title more than one meaning in the context of the story.
{tag book:} |
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If you think you're going to learn about {tag rats} from this book, you'll be disappointed. It's not so much about rats as it is about the author, his friends, an alley, union organizers, pirates, New York history, organized crime, exterminators, exterminators, more exterminators, politics, the author, the World Trade Center, and exterminators. The rats come into it briefly in chapter 18, then a couple of chapters later they're all dead and apparently it's no biggie.
The constant reiteration of how gross and disgusting the author thinks rats are throughout the book struck a repeatedly dissonant chord as well. If it's that repulsive, he should go study bunnies or something he finds more appealing.
Although it was fairly well written, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was the victim of a bait and switch due to the discrepancy between the description, the title, the reviews and the actual content of the book. I spent the majority of the time reading this in wondering when the rats were going to enter into it.
{tag book: }{tag deception: } |
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