Books like The Church Mouse

Buying this book is a mix of whimsy and preparedness. I say that I have two other of the authors books that I adored as a child so it was inevitable that I tried his most famous books. Some may say I'm getting clucky and feathering the future eka-Brendon's nest. They may have a point...I adored both Henry's Quest and Graham Oakley's Magical Changes as a child and they are even brilliant as an adult. The quality of illustration is brilliant and abounds in detail and humour. The stories even have a dark side, most obviously Henry's Quest being a children's post-apocalyptic tale and while Magical Changes sounds cute, it is essentially a generator of a multitude of surreal nightmares. Definitely the fuel for young imaginations.So I grew up exposed to these two volumes, Henry's Quest in the library, and Magical Changes on my own bookshelf thanks to an aunt. I was never exposed to Graham's most famous and popular series of works based upon this initial book. So here I find myself adding it to my latest online book order thinking why not.Well I'm not disappointed at all, but it's no Henry's Quest nor Magical changes. It's definitely Graham's more Disneyfied story, that of a mouse who lives in a church with a friendly cat. The mouse strikes up a deal with the pastor to invite all his mouse friends to move into the church and have free weekly cheese in exchange for the mice doing odd jobs around the church such as cleaning and polishing, even shining the congregations shoes during service. Things start to go awry when the congregation realise their church is infested with mice though.It is a nice story, but the accompanying illustrations are what make the book shine. I just love Graham's grungy yet detailed drawings. While the mice and the cat may be cute, even human is ugly, smudged and slightly obscure. Oh and all those worried that I am reading a religious children's book, all is OK. There is no mention of god, nor worshiping, nor any blatant christian message. It has the atheist stamp of approval.