Tumtum & Nutmeg: Adventures Beyond Nutmouse Hall by Emily Bearn, illustrated by Nick Price
My daughter is in preschool and is crazy about books and movies where animals talk. She is especially fond of rodents (by definition a rodent is a mammal whose incisors do not stop growing), and particularly mice. While I was looking for a book by Judy Blume at the library, my eyes were immediately attracted to a book by another "B" author, Emily Bearn, which on the thick spine had a drawing of two mice in clothing! I've been looking for a chapter book to read to my daughter, and this one, which is written at the 2nd-4th grader reading level, turned out to be perfect!
Mr. and Mrs. Nutmouse live in the broom cupboard of Rose Cottage in Nutmouse Hall. They enjoy the quiet life in their mansion. Despite the fact that there is a banquet room, billiard room, and a ballroom -- 36 rooms in all -- Mr. Nutmouse prefers to spend the evening reading with his feet up by the fireplace and Mrs. Nutmouse cooking or sewing. Tumtum (as Mr. Nutmouse is called because he has a bit of a tummy) and Nutmeg (called so because her fur is that color) would probably have lived out their days quietly. However, they occasionally scamper into Rose Cottage, and find that the family there is not doing well at all. The widower Mr. Mildew is such an absent-minded inventor that his house is in total disarray. And so Nutmeg's maternal instincts kick in, and she and Tumtum begin to watch over the children, Lucy and Arthur. They never dreamed that so many adventures would come to them because of this!
Three books are contained in this volume. In the first, "Tumtum & Nutmeg", the Nutmouses secretly begin to tidy up the house, darn holes in socks, and occasionally rest in Lucy's dollhouse. The children find traces of it being inhabited, and a letter-writing relationship between Nutmeg and the children is established in which she calls herself "a fairy of sorts". When evil Aunt Ivy comes to visit, the Nutmouse family faces extermination, and so General Marchmouse rallies the troops and they hasten her departure from Rose Cottage, as she was making the children miserable as well. The method they use to do so... well, without giving the story away, let me just say that it had my husband and daughter busting a gut from laughing so much!
In "The Great Escape", General Marchmouse, who is retired and longing for adventure, comes to visit the Nutmouses. Arthur and Lucy's toys are too much for him to resist, and he goes from creating mock battles in the attic with toy soldiers to being held prisoner in a cage with naked gerbils at school!! And finally, "The Pirates' Treasure" finds our dear Nutmouses secretly joining the children on a camping trip as Nutmeg is worried about them. Then General Marchmouse shows up -- everyone roll your eyes, because you know an unwanted adventure is about to begin -- and the mice find themselves stealing Arthur's toy boat, crashing it into the newly named Marchmouse Island, and using their wits (and some help from the children) to escape from the pirate Rats!
As soon as we finished the book (503 pages in all), my daughter wanted me to immediately start reading it again. There were some parts in the book that were very intense for her. She is a VERY sensitive 4-year old, and the threat of death was in each story. Consequently we read for a long time some nights, so she wouldn't go to bed upset. But if your child is in the publisher's recommended age range, no worries. My husband enjoyed listening to it as well, cozying up on the couch with us each evening. He even mentioned that he was impressed with some of the vocabulary used in it as well.
The illustrations in the book are just lovely in black and white and add a rustic feel to this English import. As for myself, I'm not a fan of the talking-animal genre... but it won me over as well! I'm going to add this one to our home library.
Other chapter books about mice you might enjoy:
Learn More:
- Tumtum & Nutmeg Official Website: Learn more about the world of Tumtum & Nutmeg. Visit the gallery to see illustrations from the book. Check out the chapter sampler read a bit of the book online. Nutmeg shares her favorite recipes with you, and there are some fun pages to print as well.
- Calico Critters: These are ADORABLE little figures! They have two mice families, the Norwood Mouse Family (pictured) and the Milky Mouse Family, and they can live in Cloverleaf Manor (among other fashionable toy houses). The furniture they come with -- wow -- it's so cute! There are all sorts of accessories that I am sure Nutmeg would use in her kitchen. You could totally pretend you've got your own Nutmouse family!! Of course, there are also squirrel, bunnies, chipmunks, etc etc -- but we ARE reading a book about mice! Good for hours and hours of fun! (I threw a few of these items into my store -- there are a TON more at Amazon!)
Wildflower ABC: An Alphabet of Potato Prints by Diana Pomeroy: This is another alphabet book with a flower for each letter -- but it's different for several reasons. First, it's about wildflowers, not your typical garden flowers. (For example, the other two books above have daffodils in them -- this has a dandelion for "D".) Also, the method the author used -- potato prints -- is different from the normal style of illustrating books. This was an art form that I needed/wanted to learn more about (see the links below). And as they're wildflowers, during the drought we're experiencing in Southern California, it's nice to see more natural, water-conserving plants highlighted.
