How Brown Mouse Kept Christmas

This is not only one of my favorite christmas stories of all time, but it was also a christmas tradition through all of my childhood. Each year on christmas eve my parents would hold me up to the trap-door for the attic as I listened to "brown mouse" scampering around above me. I have never forgotten this story, it remains my favorite to this day... wonderfully descriptive, sweet and playful, a must have for any child's collection. If you can find a copy snatch it up!

This is the dearest Christmas book I've ever read. The first time I read it to my daughters, ages 4 and 7, we had to read it again right then and there, because it was so wonderful. I even phoned my ex-husband, their father, to share it with him!The story is set on Christmas Eve in a large house filled with a human family and a family of mice, including small Brown Mouse who is so young he's never been in the people part of the house. The mice venture downstairs after midnight for "a long night of feasting and merrymaking" and return to their attic home at nearly dawn. The excitment, the sights, and the adventures they encounter make Brown Mouse's very first Christmas one he'll never forget.The writing is marvelous. You can see, taste, and smell everything the author writes about. I think the story has so much more feeling to it than "... and all through the house, not a creature was stirring...". For instance, the description of the Christmas tree begins like this:'A tall, tall tree all spicy and green hung with hundreds of twinkling, glittering things of all sorts...' and ends with 'and silvery light trembling on every branch, casting crisscross shadows on the ceiling . . .'I think this is a delightful book, and I am so glad that it is still in print! I am even getting a copy for my mother, whose absolute favorite holiday is Christmas.About 28 pages; darling pictures on every other page to hold your littlest one's attention.