Mr. Postmouse Takes a Trip

I like this book, and I particularly liked and admired the first Postmouse book, ("Mr. Postmouse's Rounds"), because of their emphasis on visual jokes and clever bits of hidden business.The story is simple enough. Mr. Postmouse and his family are off on a grand traveling holiday, and Mr. Postmouse is planning to deliver a few packages to customers along the way. The Postmouse family is pleasant and congenial and the tone of the adventure is welcoming. The narrative is brief, direct and clear, and serves mainly to caption the drawings by identifying the locations and noting the family's activities. (Swimming at the beach, riding camels in the desert, and so on.)What distinguishes the book is the drawings. Each double page drawing establishes a setting. The family vacation theme connects each setting and frames the action. Mr. Postmouse makes deliveries and his family engages in various activities, which gives the scenes some life and action. But from there, everything else is in the details. We see the interiors of the customers' houses, loaded with whimsical details and little jokes. The scenes are filled with bits of silly business and each Postmouse family member is doing something interesting. Lots of secondary characters are in the background going about their activities. There's always something hidden in a tree, or peeking out of the bushes, or fooling around off in the distance.In other words, and it's a bit odd that this is at all surprising, this is a picture book intended and crafted actually to be looked at. There are things for a little reader to find and see, and things to be pointed out. It's like a "Where's Waldo", but instead of one joke over and over there are a lot of jokes, each a bit different. And, despite all of this, the book doesn't feel over-stuffed or crowded. Each silly bit is given enough room to stand out, so the book doesn't feel like a puzzle or challenge; it just feels busy, (the way a good Richard Scarry book feels).So, I'm a fan of Marianne Dubuc's books generally, but these Postmouse books are especially amusing, entertaining and just simple fun. A nice find. (Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Love Mr Postmouse. We spend lots of time studying the pictures and making up stories about all the small, fun things that scattered through the illustrations. Lots of fun paying attention to the detail in the art work and figuring out what Lulu, Milo and Pip are up to!

Beautifully illustrated and clever!

This book is just adorable. Love this book as much as the first Mr. Postmouse.

I love all the little pictures, but I do wish that the text was a little more"rich"... not much substance nor whimsy to the words. Kinda feels like words quickly put in. BUT kids little ones dont care, my 3 year old LOVES this new book.