Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen was brought to my attention by Nymeth, who’s review was featured in my first Word of Blog Book Finds post, which appears on Mondays (normally).

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 is a graphic novel for children, which probably explains why I hadn’t come across it before since I a) am not a child; b) nor a child-friendly person; and c) don’t read graphic novels. I was missing a gem.

Mouse Guard is about a society of sentient mice living in medieval times who form a guard to protect mouse citizens from the creatures that would eat them. Originally released as a comic book series, the issues of Fall 1152 have been collected in a hardcover edition.

What makes Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 enchanting is the art work by Petersen, which you can see on the Mouse Guard site. If you like the art work that you see there, you’re likely to like the book. Each panel is a detailed painting and I couldn’t decide between flipping the pages to see what would happen or admiring the art.

The story is geared towards children, but coupled with the artwork I was happy to sit down and spend an hour reading through the book (I still want to go back and linger over the drawings). Parts of the story strain plausibility (crabs cannot hold mice in their claws, let along eat them), but we’re talking about a society of medieval sentient mice in a children’s book so I’m not going to be as picky about that as I usually would be.

There are signs of humour to go along with the intrigue of a traitor among the mice. On the copyright page is the notice:

This is a work of fiction; any similarity to persons or mice alive or dead is purely coincidental.

During a fight scene in a mouse city town square where onlookers are placing bets on the winner of the duel, there is this exchange in the crowd:

“I’ll place odds on the one with the sword.”

“Deal”

[note: the other mouse is armed with a stick; I'd normal cite a page number but there aren't any]

I found Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 a satisfying and light diversion. I can’t wait for the hardcover of Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 this fall.