Mice in the City: London and Mice in the City: New York by Ami Shin.
These gorgeous books make you want to pick them up and lose yourself for five minutes poring over the illustrations of iconic landmarks in the big city. As someone who grew up on Richard Scarry books, I was always going to love these ones by Ami Shin with their detailed cross-sections full of little mice (and the occasional cat) going about their business. Apparently there are over 1700 mice in each book so plenty for children to look at (and count!).
Mice in the City: London is bang up-to-date with the Walkie-Talkie building, the Shard and, of course, The Cheesegrater which was made for a book full of mice!
Not to be outdone, Mice in the City: New York has the Flatiron Building “…which puts mice at their ease. It’s just the same shape as a big wedge of cheese.”
These are books that are all about the pictures with just a couple of rhyming lines describing the landmark on each page but there’s also a ‘hide-and-squeak’ challenge on each page to find different characters or items which adds to the life of the book.
The colour palette on each page is fashionably limited though personally I’d have preferred more of the vibrancy of the front covers to be reflected inside. But these are truly lovely gift books – just make sure you buy a very large sheet of wrapping paper.
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