THE CHURCH MOUSE

Oakley's overstuffed, deeply colored pictures have a heavy, airless look and both text and pictures are full of sly little puns and allusions for grownup amusement. The story concerns a community of mice, coexisting with Samson the cat in an elaborate church and performing odd jobs in return for cheese from the parson -- until Samson, forgetting all the sermons about the meek being blessed, ""lapses"" during service and begins ""chasing mice all over church."" In standard mouse book fashion, the animals soon compensate for the disruption by capturing a burglar who comes to steal the church's silver candlesticks. For variation Oakley relies on arch incidentals like the rivalry between Arthur, the original church mouse, and another who is called the schoolmaster, but the stifling aura prevails.