BERNARD OF SCOTLAND YARD

The spunky little mouse featured in Bernard Sees the World (1976) sets out here from his Beacon Hill brownstone to help his British cousin Foster catch a gang of diamond thieves for Scotland Yard. Overnight Bernard constructs a balloon from household scraps and soon he has landed it in Trafalgar Square. Immediately on the trail, Bernard follows the thieving mole gang from their fast job at Lady Thistlethwaite's masked ball to their underground hideout where, he discovers, they are using the diamonds to light up a tunnel! Before the night is over Bernard and Foster have foiled the same gang's crown jewel heist, and next day the two mice are knighted, feted, and possibly mated (for Bernard at least there is an admiring young lady mouse). It's one of those straightfaced narratives that hover between spoof and clich‚--as do Gina Freschet's drawings of odd, unappealing mice in Victorian costume.