Tatty Mouse Rock Star by Hilary Robinson and Mandy Stanley

A solid hard paged book for toddlers, Tatty Mouse is one of a series about this ‘mend it make it’ mouse. An energetic recycler, Tatty Mouse always takes her tool kit along wherever she goes, alert for recycling things she finds discarded.

The cute mouse illustrations will appeal while lifting the flap on many pages will further engage the readers.

Inside the front cover the reader is introduced to Tatty with an array of equipment shown around her, including a set square, ruler, pencil, saw and glue. Tatty Mouse wants to play in her brother’s band and is making some maracas with rice and paint and sand. She looks in the cupboard and finds some tins and tubs, and after washing out all the crumbs sets about decorating the containers. Once decorated the containers are filled with the sand and rice to make a sound and on the last page the lifted flap shows Tatty using her new musical equipment as part of the band.

Young readers will love following Tatty’s journey from wanting to be in the band to collecting things to make an instrument to making it and then using it in the band. The model of how to make a simple musical instrument is shown for young and old to emulate. The bright energetic illustrations will engage the reader as they follow Tatty’s scheme from collecting rice to playing the maracas. Children will love recognising the musical instruments shown and follow the ‘did you find’ on the bottom of each page.

Look out for more in the series of books about Tatty Mouse by Hilary Robinson, a London based author of nearly seventy books for children, and is best known for Mixed Up Fairy Tales. 

And the illustrator, Mandy Stanley is an award-winning illustrator, who works her studio at home in Beccles.

Themes: Mice, Humour, Board books, Lift the flap, Musical instruments, Recycling.

Fran Knight