Mouse Mansion: Sam & Julia at the circus by Karina Schaapman

Allen & Unwin, 2014. ISBN 9781760112028
The Mouse Mansion series is a doll house and child's imaginative play with their small mouse family coming alive in a picture book. Karina Schaapman has brought her ideas to life in an oversized book with 17 chapters and 66 pages. Each page is presented with photographs of created scenes within a miniature world setting. The intricacy and detail applied to each scene is amazing and must have been an incredibly time consuming process.
Overall Mouse Mansion: Sam and Julia At the Circus is a long read and a several nights bed time read for most young kids. The font is big and the chapters are very short. The language at times is stretching for the average vocabulary of a young reader. In a time where a lot of mass produces children's books are bright and colourful, flashy and glittery and often lacking in a story with depth Mouse Mansion definitely defies the trend.
Sam and Julia at the Circus is a sweet and innocent story that revolves around two mice who are best friends. They don't have a lot but share everything they have with each other. When reading and looking at the pictures you can imagine the cute little woollen mice coming to life and having the conversations and living through the story they are a part of.
This is not your average picture book and would be very popular on any library shelf.
Steve Whitehead