| Title | : | The Rose Cottage Tales (Tumtum and Nutmeg #4-6) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0316085995 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780316085991 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 416 |
| Publication | : | First published October 5, 2010 |
The Rose Cottage Tales (Tumtum and Nutmeg #4-6) Reviews
-
2023 - It took my youngest three and myself awhile to make it through this re-read, but we made it! The younger two didn't remember the stories from when I first read this book aloud years ago. It was very fun to visit again with Tumtum and Nutmeg. I still highly recommend this series, particularly to parents with kids ages 5-10.
*****
The kids (ages 3 - 11) read through all of the Tumtum and Nutmeg stories this year and absolutely enjoyed the process. These are delightful stories with a classic feel to them. Highly recommended. -
These three stories were not as funny as the stories in the first volume. They also weren't much about the Nutmouses. They were mostly about General Marchmouse who has gone from war hero to irresponsible, immature, and maybe even senile. These stories were so little about Tumtum & Nutmeg that they should have been called General Marchmouse: The Rose Cottage Tales (or maybe General Marchmouse: His Second Childhood.) I missed Tumtum and Nutmeg in the starring roles with General Marchmouse as the silly but strategically clever neighbor. The stories are still cute, but not as charming.
-
I started reading this book yesterday, and I finished it today.
This is a very unique book considering the common theme of children's literature these days.
It is refreshing to read this style which evokes classic literature like Beatrix Potter.
And the British style with all its sherbet and British culture references is very charming!
However, I suspected during my reading that the book is part of a series, and Goodreads has confirmed this.
So I read it out of order!
My favorite part of the book was actually the "Christmas Recipe Book" at the end, complete with British recipes! I definitely want to try the Mini Lemon Pancakes.
The book is well-written, with a style that flows and prompts a quick read of the entire book.
I could never discern where the author left off and started writing again.
It reads as if it was written in one sitting, which is the best type of writing.
Bearn also uses their choice of mouse characters well.
I notice that many times when an author writes about anthropomorphic animal characters, that the plots could easily be replaced with a human character. And the author just uses an animal character for kicks, and to appeal to children.
However, Bearn completely incorporates her mouse theme realistically and amusingly into her stories!
I also appreciated how she wrote that the mice eat things like roach pies and roasted flies!
It is completely realistic, seeing how real mice live, that they would eat insects.
I do not recall ever reading that sort of detail in a book about mice before, and it was great.
Mice are actually common characters for children's literature.
I think it is because they are seen as similar to a child's position; a small being in a big world.
And so many authors parallel mice to children.
However, I love that the book writes the relationship between the children Arthur and Lucy Mildew and the mice Tumtum and Nutmeg as started because the mice live in the children's house, and are their sort of guardians!
I loved the notes that the mice and children would write to communicate back and forth with each other.
It reminds me of the correspondence letters that I would write as a child to my "Tooth Fairy" (my mother).
As I got further into the book, I realized that it must be part of a series and that I must be reading it out of order. But to Bearn's credit it didn't hinder me much because she still wrote it with a reader like me who picks and reads the book on its own out of order in mind.
I gathered that the children Arthur and Lucy do not know that Nutmeg is actually a mouse, and they think she is a fairy! Apparently she first introduced herself to the children as 'a Fairy of Sorts'.
Beautiful detail!
I love that the mice are afraid of the possibility of themselves and their mice friends getting captured by the children, and that though they love the children, the mice are still cautious of them.
Another realistic detail.
My favorite story of the Rose Cottage Tales was the second story, entitled; 'A Seaside Surprise'. I think it was the most entertaining out of the three. The first story 'A Christmas Adventure' was also magical, but I think that 'A Seaside Surprise' was the most fleshed out and well-executed story. It incorporated all of the mouse themes the best, and had the best balance of Arthur and Lucy's relationship with the mice.
I found General Marchmouse's character very annoying. I first found his antics in 'A Seaside Surprise' very irritating, and then by the time that he started acting up again in 'A Circus Adventure', I was exasperated. The General Marchmouse is very egotistical, selfish, and self-serving. All he ever wants to do is abandon his wife and take the credit for everything including the work of others, and get published in the newspaper. And he also is very foolish, never learning his lesson. He hardly ever feels remorse for his actions!
'The Chief Constable was scratching his chin.
"You have been a very foolish mouse, General," he said eventually. "And next time you borrow a toy bus without permission I might not be so lenient! But for now you have been punished enough."'
I thought the General's lack of consequence in 'A Circus Adventure' to be unsettling. He never gets punished for breaking and stealing Arthur's birthday toys (his toy bus and his toy circus clothing), for being rude to Tumtum and Nutmeg, and for "unwittingly" consorting with criminals! His only "punishment" was getting himself stuck in a chocolate eclair, which the Constable helps him out of. Hardly any punishment. And then the story describes the General receiving a birthday party from all the mice later in the story (he abandoned his first birthday party that Nutmeg had prepared for him);
"For I'm a jolly good fellow!" he sang, blowing out his candles with a single puff. And the mood was so merry, even the Chief Constable agreed that a better general there never was!"
Well, there should have been a better example of a general then.
The General's character just irritated me so much that I could go on and on about him!
He was the biggest flaw in the book.
The only other 'flaw' was again that the discernment between right and wrong is very shady in the book, and it should be very clear in a children's book which children will be reading and learning from.
In the first story, the "villain" Baron Toymouse is excused for his selfish and violent behavior because of his rough childhood. And that's a good lesson, to teach children that there are sometimes reasons behind one's behavior and that everyone has a story. And the best part is that the Baron Toymouse redeems himself in the end, and I found it touching.
In the following stories, 'A Seaside Surprise' and 'A Circus Adventure', the villains never redeem themselves and in fact, they only become "rewarded" for their crimes and behavior by getting captured by humans, becoming famous, and living luxuriously in captivity.
I think that might be confusing for children, that the villains never get punished or have a consequence. As an adult, I saw this aspect as a bit of dry humor poking at modern society (like the musical 'Chicago') in which criminals always become famous and celebrated.
But I don't think that it makes for a good element in a children's story.
I also did not like the way that Nick Price draws the humans in the illustrations.
He draws mice extremely well and his style is well suited for them.
But his style of humans took me out of the book a little with its otherwise vintage almost Victorian classic atmosphere.
The humans reminded me of less sophisticated grade school books like The Magic Schoolbus.
But the illustrations of the mice are great!
I often see authors struggle with writing the endings to their books; the endings are typically abrupt. As if authors really do always write in consequential order and then just run out of steam at the end.
I liked the ending of this book.
The two children try to stay up to try to catch a glimpse of Nutmeg, as they start to expect that she is not a "fairy" but a mouse herself.
"Lucy propped herself up on her pillow, watching the moonlight slip through the curtains. It was very exciting to find out who Nutmeg was. But an hour passed, and then another, and her eyes got heavier and heavier...And by the time Nutmeg finally crept upstairs, Lucy was far away, dreaming of mice dressed as clowns and of fairies with long, nutmeg tails."
I definitely enjoyed reading this book. I have recently sought out what I call "just genuinely nice" books; books that are just simple and sweet and positive. And of course this sort is usually in the children's genre.
I love the British classic feel, and the keeping up of a tradition of writing mostly wholesome and innocent literature for children.
I am interested in the rest of the series.
And again, I really delight in the recipes at the end!
What a charming final touch! -
This isn't as good as the first one which is often the case, but the main problem for me is that it doesn't seem like the bad guys are punished- there are rewarded. Also the illustrations are creepy.
-
I read these out loud to the kids (ages 4 and 6) mostly during a week stuck sick at home, and they begged me to keep reading at the end of each chapter. The stories are creative and charming, with just the right amount of adventurous peril to keep them engaging - complete with compelling mice villans! They are a fun stepping stone to the slightly older and more violent Redwall series.
-
Very cute. This is the 2nd book, but we didn't find that out until after we'd started it. Definitely entertaining for younger children.
-
What a charming collection! Tumtum and Nutmeg are ridiculously adorable, and I love their “grand” adventures. Perfect for anyone to read, really.
-
Read this to Ember and we both enjoyed it.
-
While not quite as good as the first collection, these are still amusing stories about the antics of the mice who live and visit Rose Cottage. My girls (3 and 6) loved listening and were sorry it was over.
-
The first story in this collection (the Christmas one) was fairly decent, but after that (and ESPECIALLY in the circus one) I was 100% ready to be done with General Marchmouse and his antics. A good friend of the protagonist mice, he was helpful in the Christmas story but in both of the others his lust for glory and lack of self-control make things go from bad to worse again and again, causing his friends no end of worry and danger, and with almost no remorse. It was like having to watch a slow train wreck again and again. 😆🙈 Also, the children in the story have a father who seems to be continually absent and neglectful (forgot it was Christmas, doesn't stick up for his children, forgets to make them meals), which gives the mice in the story a reason for looking after them, but I thought was a little weird for a young children's book. I wouldn't choose to read it again.
-
Perfect book for my little girls and their imagination. More like this please!
-
We love the Tumtum and Nutmeg stories at our house and these might be even better than the first collection!
The characters are so endearing. I love the ways we get to know the characters and follow along on their adventures. The General continues to be quite naughty in this one. But he's less over the top overall. Love Nutmeg and her kindness and mothering. Love Tumtum for being so practical and positive. We love meeting new friends in this one!
Love that connections between the mice and Arthur and Lucy. They are almost interacting which is fun.
Great drawing throughout. Very fun and engaging stories. All of us were excited to learn what happens next and often read several chapters a night.
Love the Christmas story! So fun to see what Tumtum and Nutmeg do at Christmastime. Loved the toy nursery of the Baron Toymouse and the Strawberry creams! We want to make those now.
We hope for more Tumtum and Nutmeg stories in the future! Love them! -
Definitely twee. Separate story adventures of two mice that live in a secret room of Rose Cottage. They contact the rather neglected children that live there with their absent minding inventor father. Not bad, I could see really good readers in 4th grade liking the fact that this is a longer book and they could sink their teeth into it, and yet does not provide any challenging social issues- much like the animal adventure/fairy stories that are often standard fare for younger readers. I might have liked it as a child- would not have loved it- but not so much now.
-
My kids (8, 5, 3) absolutely love these books! As soon as this one was over, my oldest said, "Is there a third!?" I will say that I wish there were more natural consequences for the "bad characters" in this book. Another reader made a comment that it seemed like the bad guys got rewarded instead of punished. I definitely see where they were coming from with this comment. We also talked multiple times about General Marchmouse's bragging and how he needed to learn how to be humble. But, despite this, Tumtum and Nutmeg are some of my family's favorite little characters.
-
This was a Christmas gift for Catherine. We absolutely flew through this collection of 3 books. The kids LOVED them and begged for "just one more chapter" every time we read. We're planning on reading the other 4 books in the series soon. Highly recommend. Even my sensitive souls found the books suspenseful in a good way and enjoyed it all. Nothing too scary. I can't believe how recently they were written, they read like old classics.
-
Cute, but I really don't like General Marchmouse. He seems modeled on Mr. Toad, another character I've never been fond of. Additionally, I find it frustrating that books written in the past few years feature female characters that don't get to have adventures, but are relegated to cooking, cleaning, and fretting about the males off doing stuff.
-
One of E's read-alouds. She was absorbed in the antics of Tumtum, Nutmeg, and their absurd friend General Marchmouse. I was a little less enthusiastic. I can see why the mice's misadventures are appealing to kids, and I will likely end up reading these stories with all of my girls--they're just a little too ridiculous for my taste.
-
I had no idea this was the middle of a series when I picked it up at the library. As I read it I began to suspect that was the case though and goodreads confirmed that suspicion. That being said, it was a fun, quick read and I think my boy will love these stories when he get's a little older.
-
I would have been more immersed in this if I had read it as a child. The stories are fun, though the last one was my favorite by far. I look forward to reading the first set of stories. I got the order mixed up somehow, so we'll see if that affected my reading experience.
-
The continuing adventures of Arthur and Lucy Mildew and the mice Tumtum and Nutmeg and General Marchmouse finds them at Christmas, dealing with pirates, and even dealing with a gang of thieves. But you will have to read the book to find out what happens.
-
This one, unlike the first 3 stories had some unconventional "punishments" for the bad guys that didn't always look like punishments and gave the endings a different sort of twist. My 5 year old is enchanted by this writing, though, and we are sad we are all finished.
-
Very cute. This is the 2nd book, but i didn't find that out until after i finished it. Definitely entertaining for younger children. I didn’t particularly like that the enemy’s didn’t learn their lessons. It was ok though. -
This is the second book in the Tumtum & Nutmeg series. I wrote a long review about their first book; Adventures beyond Nutmouse Hall so there is not much more to say about this book but that it is a delightful read for young readers. Imaginative and full of adventure.
-
Cute stories about two mice named Tumtum and Nutmeg and the adventures they have and the dangers they face.
-
I need more!!!!
-
We all loved this series about mice adventures and the children they live with. We were all sad to have the series end!
