Mr. Postmouse is a busy guy. He loads his wagon up and makes his way through the village, making deliveries at nearly every house. Each animal (or animal family), has a very distinctive home. For instance, bear's house has a bee hive on the roof with pipes that bring the honey down to the kitchen and drip it right into convenient jars. Rabbit's house has a bedroom for all the kids with bunk beds stacked 7 tall. And it is that way for each type of animal. There are tons of details to look at and then look again because you probably missed something the first time. Some parts made me laugh out loud, such as Mr. Postmouse in a fireproof suit having barbecue with his friend dragon, or the sun lamps keeping snake warm in his den.
Another wonderful part is the nod to familiar stories, such as Bear and his guest, a golden-haired girl, eating bowls of porridge together. And the pigs helping the sheep escape from the wolf's closet while wolf is busy filing his claws will get a giggle from everyone. ( I really like their black shirts and masks.) Other details cater more to the type of animal who lives there, such as the jay with all the shiny things he has carried off (and on the next page there is a notice posted to the tree about a missing ring, which we can see in jay's nest).
Some parts may escape the notice of very young readers. When it says that Mr. Postmouse luckily has nothing to deliver to the snake, it may need to be explained that snakes eat mice. Then, when they see the car-shaped lump in snake's belly, that will really seem funny. The fact that the flies live in a house with a very odd shape may seem strange until you explain that it is a pile of dung. It could be a game as absorbing as an I Spy or aWhere's Waldo? book trying to find all the little tidbits, like the artwork hung upside down in the bats' house, and then figuring out why they are shown that way.
Loads of fun and lots of laughs will surely accompany each reading. The book's trailer does a great job of presenting the charm of the story.
I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.
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