Mr Postmouse Goes on Holiday
Marianne Dubuc
Book Island
Mr Postmouse is back – or rather, he isn’t: he’s off on a holiday trip with his family and like many of us, is taking some work to finish. First stop is the forest where they set up camp, oh! and there just happens to be a parcel to drop off for forest resident, Aunt Maisy.

The mice then head to the seaside for some relaxation before boarding a cruise ship, which stops off at a volcanic island for another parcel delivery and for Pipsqueak, provides an opportunity to toast some marshmallows – yummy!

A camel ride in the desert, a jungle safari, a hasty, town stopover, a mountain sortie, a polar stop-off, an air-balloon flight all follow; and as you might expect, Mr P. has parcels to drop off at all the locations.

Eventually though, the globe trotting is over and the mouse family return home where unsurprisingly there’s a whole pile of letters needing to be delivered by Mr Postmouse.
This sequel is every bit as full of delicious details as Here Comes Mr Postmouse. It’s hard to show these on photos; but for instance, the forest scene has elements of a Hansel and Gretel type story being acted out by various characters. A mouse is picking up the pebbles that a small boy is using to leave a trail and hand-in-hand, two small children are heading towards a gingerbread house, there are boy scout bunnies and a whole host of minibeasts –

one toasting what looks like a sausage, over a bonfire.
If you share this with a group of youngsters – and I hope you will, as it offers so much to discuss, then ensure you build in lots of time to peruse each spread.

No matter where your holiday destination is, this might well be a worthwhile book to take along:

Travel Activity Book
illustrated by Charlie Brandon-King
Button Books
Starting with, on the inside front cover, a host of ideas for games to play on the journey, youngsters are offered a wealth of removable sheets of things to do from ‘Get Packed’ with its empty case, ticket and blank passport waiting to be filled; airport related activities, to a spot the clouds page, followed by a world map page. This just covers the first half dozen pages. There follow: all kinds of puzzles, problems to solve, drawing, writing and other creative activities and more.
No matter if you’re travelling to a jungly location or island far away, or somewhere much closer to home, there should be something to keep children from around 4 to 10 involved.

I’ve signed the charter