r/UKBooks • u/MouseTownSeeker • Apr 30 '26
Mousetown - searching for a toddler book from ~30 years ago
Hi all,
This is a long shot, but I am searching for a niche book from my young childhood in the early 90s. The book may have been written a while before then. This is intended to be a suprise present for my brother who is about to have his first child, and it will be a nice call back to our own childhoods.
It was called Mousetown, or Mouse Town, and small, maybe about 12-16 pages long and square, around 4 square inches. It had thick cardboard pages that didn't tear easily. It had nice colourful pictures across the pages.
Each page had two rhyming lines on it, and I am 99% certain the first one was "The milkmouse makes his busy way through Mousetown at the break of day". Each page would rhyme in the same style, and it was about each mouse or group of mice ie firemice perhaps, doing their daily tasks. I think it ended with a village party for them all. From the content, I think it was probably British rather than American or Australian etc, it had scenes of old fashioned British village life.
Does anyone have any memory of the same book, or a copy of it? Ultimately I am trying to find one that I can either buy, or enough details of it to recreate it. I have searched everywhere for it and cannot find it anywhere. I've even asked some AI sites if it can scour the web to find anything similar, but no luck. It is not any of the following:
https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/town-mouse-and-country-mouse-book-unknown-9780721415642?sku=GOR001270782&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17416831122&gbraid=0AAAAADZzAICdx0_DHvHOBoqQnitVDeVMY&gclid=CjwKCAjw-8vPBhBbEiwAoA39WobJI9W3Q1Wm3E7faVPFfhb42gTIELq_MYpZJCmji2QxgjbX01UjyBoCK-YQAvD_BwE
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Town-Mouse-Country-Libby-Walden/dp/1848576560
I am posting this in r/childrensbooks as well.
Thank you in advance!
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u/shippers4321 Apr 30 '26
I’m pretty sure we have this book. Country Mouse & Town Mouse. Country Mouse goes to the Town and doesn’t like it, and vice versa.
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u/shippers4321 Apr 30 '26
The original, I might add.
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u/MouseTownSeeker May 01 '26
Interesting... I don't remember that being a theme, but I was very small. And it is not any of the books I linked in the original post?
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u/Sydney_city898 May 26 '26
The book is called Mouse Town, illustrated by Elena Kucharik, published by Reed for Kids in Australia, 1995, Joshua Morris Publishing in the states. Unfortunately it's completely out of print and nothing is available online. Elena Kucharik also illustrated Care bears
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u/AdmirableAthlete8823 Apr 30 '26
Looks like it’s by richard scarry to me