Station Zero

  Today, with a small but impressive drum-roll, and a barely audible fanfare from teeny tiny trumpets, we announce the launch of the THIRD Adventuremice book, Mice on the Ice . This time there’s a festive feel in the air: the sea around the Mouse Islands has frozen over and the mice are all getting excited fro their annual Frost Fair. But when the ship that’s sailed to the mainland to nab some festive goodies gets stuck in the ice, it’s up to the Adventuremice team to save the day. As usual with Reeve & McIntyre productions, the story was devised by both of us amid much giggling, then I wrote the words (with some help from Sarah), and we did the roughs together. Then Sarah spent MONTHS AND MONTHS drawing and painting the final artwork. I think she’s outdone herself this time - the chilly backgrounds make the interiors feel even cosier, and the colours really zing against the whites and greys of the ice. All the images are original watercolours, and if you’d like to buy one yo...

  My first two Adventuremice books with  Sarah McIntyre , based on her brilliant mouse paintings, are in the (UK) bookshops now. Otter Chaos introduces Pedro and the rest of the daring crew, and Mermouse Mystery sends them off on an underwater quest to return a baby mermouse to his subaqueous home.  But there’s MORE. A wintry story, Mice on the Ice , will be coming out in early September. There’s a long lead team on these books so Sarah completed the artwork for this one back in the spring - it looks absolutely gorgeous. And at the moment she’s busy painting the illustrations for the fourth book, which will come out early next year. In a break with the usual nautical theme we’re sending our mousey adventurers into SPAAAAAAAACE. Here’s Mice on the Moon ! And here’s Sarah in her studio with the original artwork. (Original artwork for the earlier titles is available to buy in her online shop.) The Adventuremice series is published by David Fickling Books and can be bought...

There’s great excitement in the Mouse Islands, because today is the day that Otter Chaos is finally published. The   first of my new Adventuremice series with Sarah McIntyre is in UK and Irish bookshops NOW, and it’s looking lovely, packed as it is with Sarah’s beautiful watercolour illustrations. It started out as a series of nautical mouse paintings she did during the pandemic lockdowns, and you can find out more about it at our snazzy new website, adventuremice.com , which features videos, quizzes, drawing guides, and a handy classroom pack of free, easily downloadable resources for teachers . You can even read the first chapter of Otter Chaos  there for free there, to find out whether it’s Your Sort Of Thing. Several young reviewers have already decided that it is their sort of thing: here’s a very in-depth appreciation by six-year-old Jesse for Books Up North , while the discerning Peapod over at Bellis Does Books awards it an impressive ‘four hundred and eleventy hun...