Reeve & McIntyre present ADVENTUREMICE!

What inspired you to write this book?

All the Adventuremice books are inspired by some paintings Sarah did a few years ago of toy ships she’s collected. To make them more interesting she gave them crews of brave little mice, and we decided to start writing stories about them. We very quickly came up with a whole world, the Mouse Islands, and the Adventuremice themselves, who leap into action whenever danger looms.

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How would you suggest primary teachers use this book?  

Many teachers like to start with the first book in the series, Adventuremice: Otter Chaos. We introduce readers to a young mouse named Pedro who sets off into the wide world to seek adventuremice and gets swept off to sea and rescued by a pilot named Fledermaus, who introduces him to the rest of the Adventuremice. Pedro hopes to prove himself and join their team, and gets his chance when an otter named Mortlake menaces the Mouse Islands.

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This book works well with Years 2 and 3, when they're moving on to longer chapter books but still appreciate lots of inspiring illustrations. Teachers can read aloud to the children or have them read alone, and download the Teacher Pack we provide at Adventuremice.com. It's full of free resources: videos, printable activity sheets, a classroom quiz, and lesson plan suggestions. We also provide a Teacher Pack for the second book, Adventuremice: Mermouse Mystery, and continuing resources for all the following books.

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The books don't necessarily need to be read in order; teachers can pick the ones that they feel best suit their children's interests or fit in best with the curriculum topics.

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What motivated you to begin a career in writing/illustrating?

PR: I always loved stories and pictures, and when I was growing up writing and drawing were my favourite things to do, so I just kept doing them and eventually they became my job.

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SM: I've always made books and pictures, it's only that at a certain point in my life, I started getting paid to do it! My first book I remember making was My Fish, when I was five years old. I can remember it because my mother bound it beautifully in a cloth cover and kept it for me, and gave it back to me when I was grown up. A great surprise to see it again!

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What are the major influences in your work and how do you decide on your subjects?

When we work together we usually start with a picture, like Sarah’s mouse paintings or Philip’s drawing of a plump flying horse which sparked off our Roly Poly Flying Pony series.

PR: I think Sarah is the biggest influence on my work nowadays - certainly when we make books together.

SM: I didn't study Illustration when I first went to uni; I studied Russian, and when I spent my third year studying in Moscow, I saw amazing things at the art museums there. Many of the vivid (and often huge!) paintings featured people and animals in stories and folklore. Before then, I'd kind of wanted to be an artist, but this trip focused my interest in creating pictures for stories.

For the Adventuremice, they were inspired by my ship collection, but also Covid lockdown: I couldn't go anywhere, so it cheered me up to draw pictures of these little mice setting off on big adventures. And they're so tiny that even crossing a big puddle in the park could be a big adventure! It was like I was having adventures myself, but on a very small scale, at home. I was thrilled when Philip agreed to turn these into books with me.

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Which books had a lasting impact on you as a child and why?

PR: There were so many, I was always reading (or being read to). The Lord of the Rings was my big favourite from about the age of ten (and still is) I’m sure you can see its influence all over my books for older readers. The Winnie the Pooh books were an earlier favourite, and I guess they’re an influence on Adventuremice - that blend of cosiness and humour. But comics were important too, and TV - The Clangers and Noggin the Nog… The important thing is to have loads of different favourites so the influences all mix together and turn into something new.

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SM: Same, I think it's important to read as widely as possible, and sometimes try reading a book I think looks terrible, because it might surprisingly turn out to be amazing and blow my mind. Some of my favourite books growing up were collections of Calvin & Hobbes comics by Bill Watterson: the pictures and jokes work on so many levels. And I loved (and still love) Richard Adams' Watership Down, The Twenty-One Balloons, written and illustrated by William Pène du Bois, and The Phantom Tollbooth with words by Norton Juster and pictures by Jules Fieffer. These three all feature characters who set off on adventures that turn out to be wild and wackier than anything they possibly could have imagined. ...Much like little Pedro of the Adventuremice!

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Visit Adventuremice.com for free teaching resources and activities! The authors love seeing your classroom artwork - you can share on social media:

Sarah - X and Instagram: @jabberworks

Philip - X: @philipreeve1 / Instagram: @thesolitarybee