This book is beautiful and so many little mice on every page. I loved the art and my favorite page has the patchwork quilt and several sleeping children under it. The rhyming style (that reads like Twas the Night Before Christmas) makes it a quick, fun read too. Loved the ending and its nod to the classic as well.

This is a cute tale that tells you about the mouse families and their Christmas.
Skyhook Press and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It has been published and you can get a copy now.

The illustrations are great and so is the story. The family of mice decorate the house to make it look festive. Mom creates lots of food. The children wrap the presents. Then the relatives begin to arrive.

Between eating and dancing and opening presents, everyone is having a good time. Then Santa Mouse shows up. That makes a good ending to this fun Christmas book.

The beautiful artwork in this book, while old-fashioned style, grabbed my children’s attention and kept them exploring the details closer on every page. A cute Christmas storyline told in poetic form made for a fun read-aloud bedtime story. My children were both interested in the concept of the story… what about the mice on the Night Before Christmas? It appears they were quite busy themselves!

A Charming Companion to Clement C. Moore's The Night Before Christmas

This is a clever and charming take on why the mice are not "stirring" in THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS. The rhymes follow the cadence of Moore's original poem perfectly. The highly detailed drawings grab the eye and provide numerous topics of discussion while reading the book with kids.

My 8-year-old called it "a good read" and "loved the hamster part." (Santa Mouse has hamsters pulling his sleigh.)

My preschooler gave it "all the thumbs-ups".

I can see the reading of this book becoming one of our Christmas traditions.

Thank you netgalley for the chance to review!
This story is about what the mice were doing on the night before Christmas. I read this with my 8 year old and she absolutely loved it! I would recommend to young readers.

In search of a quick read to put you in the Christmas spirit? Check out the “The Mice Before Christmas”. Anne L. Watson and Wendy Edelson created a magical book! The book is beautifully written and the illustrations are enchanting!

“‘Twas the day before Christmas, all through their house, the mice were preparing.”

With only a few days left until Christmas, I needed something to get me into the holiday spirit. This book did that for me. It is an absolutely delightful read!

Not only are the illustrations enchanting, but I felt a sense nostalgia while reading “ The Mice Before Christmas”. As I read the book to the tune of “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”, I was overwhelmed with beautiful memories and feelings of family traditions shared on Christmas Eve.

I recommend this book to both the young and the young at heart.

“Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”

I received “The Mice Before Christmas” from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you!

This was a very cute take on the traditional story ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. You have a mice family getting ready for Christmas. Santa mouse in his sleigh with hamster reindeer flying through the air to deliver gifts to all the good children mice. It puts a smile on your face as you read the story. The illustrations are beautiful and very colorful. Everyone young and old will enjoy this book. This was a fun and enchanting story. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Sweet book w/lovely illustrations..
Mice star in this adaptation of “‘Twas the night Before Christmas “.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

The Mice Before Christmas is a truly wonderful read!
This adaption is based on Twas the night before Christmas. The illustrations are beautiful and traditional and the rhyming is superbly done!
I've always loved Twas the night before Christmas and this book has installed its way into my heart. I hope to get a physical copy one day for my daughter to treasure.
This would make a perfect book on the run up to Christmas to share with your little one and after a few reads I'm sure they will be able to finish some of the rhyming sentences.
I highly recommend this fir Christmas to every child- its a truly magical book!

Thankyou so much to Skyhook Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read this absolutely adorable book.

The poem was something else, it warmed my heart and made me smile. We follow as the mice prepare the day before christmas going about their jobs; decorating, baking, wrapping presents etc.

The drawings were stunning, so bright, colourful and detailed showing so much. If you read this to a child they will absolutely love it.

My favourite part was Santa Mouse with his Hamsters pulling the sleigh. It's so quirky and a great twist on the original book. It will definitely be one I read every year.

I want to say so much more but all I can say is you have to read it to understand the magic of The Mice Before Christmas.

Dang! No wonder those mice weren't stirring. The Night Before Christmas as been a favourite of mine for a long time. So, when I saw The Mice Before Christmas by Anne L. Watson, I had to give it a read.

In all honesty, I was not expecting to love this book as much as I did. I loved it so much on the first read, that I decided to read it through a second time.

Those mice had a party that would put anyone to shame. They were living it up. The story and writing were executed perfectly. The illustrations were stunning. A new Christmas classic.

I received an eARC from Skyhook Press through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.

Such a perfect bedtime Christmas story! A sweet and clever "unofficial prequel" to The Night Before Christmas, beautifully illustrated and told in gorgeous rhyme. I read this with my 4, 6 & 8 year olds and they were enthralled by the funny twists on the original (Santa Mouse was a huge hit). The hustle and bustle of prepping for Christmas is so relatable and, in Covid times, my kids got to enjoy a bit of vicarious socializing through the little mice.

This book would definitely stand up to multiple readings - text aside, there so much going on in the pictures you're sure to find something new every time. My kids had great fun choosing which mouse they'd be on every page as they re-read the book themselves. It's also worth mentioning, while this story is a play on the original Clement Clarke Moore's poem, readers don't *need* to know that poem to appreciate The Mice Before Christmas (although that does add to the fun). A proper "instant classic", and definitely one we'll be reading again for many Christmases to come!

Author Anne L. Watson and illustrator Wendy Edelson have created a new children's classic in The Mice Before Christmas: A Mouse Tale of the Night Before Christmas. This spin on Clement Moore's timeless A Visit from St. Nicholas retells the tale from the point of view of the mice in the home. The gorgeous, detailed illustrations perfectly support the cleverly written text. Children (and adults) will have fun closely examining the illustrations to discover hidden details. The book is a perfect read aloud for the holiday season and should find its way into homes and school libraries for years to come.

Full Disclosure--NetGalley and the publisher provided me with a digital ARC of this book. This is my honest review.

This is such a cute twist to the Christmas classic. It goes into such fun detail about what the mice did all day before going to sleep, and the illustrations were just as detailed and fun to really draw you into the entire story. I would absolutely recommend adding this to your collection. Kids both young and older I think would find this story enjoyable.

What an adorable take on a classic holiday tale. The Mice Before Christmas supplements the well-known poem, The Night Before Christmas, with a mouse-eyed-view of what happens among the mice as they prepare for Santa's arrival. After all of their decorating, dancing, and gift-giving,, it's no wonder that they were fast asleep by the time Santa came.

The illustrations through out the book are very sweet and reminiscent of Christmas books that I read as a small child. I think this was a lovely book -- I want to add it to my holiday collection.

⭐️ 5 ⭐️

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC, in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I happened upon The Mice Before Christmas completely by chance. Whilst browsing through NetGalley titles, my inner child saw the beautiful cover and nagged at me to read it, how on earth could I say no?

Firstly, I have to mention the wonderful detailed illustrations by Wendy Edelson, they’re exquisite, reminiscent of illustrations in books I loved as a child (a long time ago). Children of any age will delight in looking at them. They alone tell the story without any real need for words.

The Mice Before Christmas is a twist on the the famous and much loved poem by Clement Clarke Moore ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ (A Visit From St. Nicholas), and I particularly liked the way the two are linked at the end.

Beautifully written in rhyme, the book is pure Christmas joy. A book to be brought out on Christmas Eve, year after year and enjoyed by children and adults alike.

This was an instant hit at my house! We always read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve and now we will be adding this book to that tradition!!! The story is so sweet and the illustrations are so very beautiful! Highly highly recommend!

Thanks to the publishers for sharing this one. I love the illustrations! My full review appears on Weekend Notes.

(Review will be live online 12/6/21)

The Mice Before Christmas
Anne L. Watson, Wendy Edelson, 2021
New Release! A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for the purpose of review.

Summary of my review: Awwwwwww!

This cute little book posits that those mice who weren't stirring the night before Christmas must have had an awfully busy day. Playful verse and charming illustrations follow a sprawling mouse clan coming together for a massive party. It's a bit reminiscent of the opening of The Nutcracker and dozens of other stories that feature a party in a grand family house.

The writing is sweet, but the art is the real star here. Big illustrations full of tiny details, down to the patterned fabric of tiny mouse frock coats.

In case it isn't already clear, this leans heavily into a prosperous European image of Christmas in which a holiday party features hundreds of participants, multiple courses for dinner, plus live music and dancing. I think the art is adorable, but I wanted to point that out.

Many stories with anthropomorphic animals have odd little quirks, and my small quibble with this one is: why does the band feature a frog, a chipmunk, a rat, a hedgehog, and a bird, but Santa's sleigh is pulled by hamsters? Hamsters are dumb, but they're not THAT dumb in the scale of tiny creatures. There are also human children in the last picture, and I'm not sure if the intended implication is that the mouse family lives in the walls of that house or if the mouse story was made up by the kids...

Tiny logical head-scratchers aside, this is a very sweet book that I think young kids will enjoy.

Who doesn't love Clement C. Moore's classic poem "Twas The Night Before Christmas." Well, this book takes that poem and rewrites if from the POV of the mice. It describes their day, all the activities and action that totally exhausts them and explains why not even a mouse is stirring. We meet a family of mice decorating, baking, wrapping gifts, playing in the snow and then having a party where it seems every mouse they know is invited. It even includes a visit from Santa Mouse, so they are fast asleep from exhaustion when St. Nic appears at the house for the human children. It was a fun story, but the younger two grandchildren were more interested in the illustrations than the words. The oldest (8) listened and enjoyed the poem. The illustrations were absolutely amazing. They were full of detail that we poured over, laughed at and talked about. The illustrations tell the story as well as the words. This is a book that could be read by all ages and would be a wonderful companion on the bookshelf with the original poem. I definitely recommend this one for families, libraries and even schools.