Title: Mouse & Mole: Lo and Behold! (Mouse & Mole #7)
Author: Joyce Dunbar
Illustrator: James Mayhew
Publisher: Graffeg
Genre: Children’s picture book
Book format: Hardback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: Christmas is coming but not soon enough for Mole. While Mouse gets ready for the great day, Mole thinks opening windows on an advent calendar will speed things up. But will his cunning plan work?
*Free copy provided by publisher for review…
Review: This is such a fun picture book and such a sweet set of stories! ‘Mouse and Mole: Lo and Behold!’ is about A4 in size and is filled with very thick matt pages of lovely illustrations and text. There are three stories in this picture book, Snowmole, Lo and Behold and A Bump in the Night, and they are all is as cute, funny and charming as each other.
In Snowmole, mouse and mole wake up excited to go out in the snow. While ouside they enjoy sledging, throwing snowballs at each other and making a snowsomething. Eventually the snowsomething turns into a snowmole, and Mole is delighted, but he worries that the snowmole might be lonely so he stays outside to keep it company, even when it gets too cold.. This story is so lovely and I love what happens at night when the snowmole seems to come to life, reminiscent of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman’ although with a very different ending!
In Lo and Behold! Mole is excited about the fact it’s the first day of December and wants Christmas to come as quickly as possible, so he tries opening up the advent calendar windows ahead of time, until Mouse reminds him that there’s so much to do and Mole shouldn’t be in too much of a rush to make Christmas come so soon. I love Mole’s character in this story, he’s so silly with opening the doors but in the end Mole ends up learning to be patient and there’s a funny ending to this story especially.
In A Bump in the Night it’s Chritmas Eve and the two friends go to bed awaiting Father Christmas’ arrival. But Mole can’t sleep, he worries that they’ve forgotten something and when he creeps downstairs to do what he earlier forgot, there’s a big bump in the night! I think this was my favourite story due to how funny and silly things got. I love the twist that both characters have on Father Christmas’ visit and what happens to both of them in turn. It’s like a comic caper and it was just so funny.
All three stories are so fun and the illustrations make this book so appealing. I just love the style of illustration, it reminds me a little of Brambly Hedge, which was a favourite set of books for me when I grew up, and I just couldn’t help but love how cute and fun Mouse, Mole and their friends are. The illustrations really do make this book all the more enjoyable, especially when you see the expressions on their faces or the funny situations that happen.
Overall this is a lovely picture book to get over Christmas, winter and beyond. The set of three stories centre around Christmas and are all so fun. I think it’s lovely to get three stories rather than just one, and all three tales are guaranteed to have children (and I’m sure many adults) enjoying them again and again.
What do you think of this book? Have you or your children read any of the Mouse & Mole series? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 