Fierce mousie.....

Years ago, at one of my office jobs, I had a co-worker who had a phrase "fierce monkey." As in, "You should have seen how upset she was --- she got all fierce monkey on me." I still use this phrase myself, once in a while, because I think it's funny.
But enough about monkeys --- this post is about 2 books I recently got from the library: Mouse Guard Fall 1152 and Mouse Guard Winter 1152. I had read about Fall 1152 and ordered it for our collection, read it, and then had to wait for Winter 1152, which took a while to be published. I originally picked up the first book, not just because it sounded interesting, but because the art is so beautiful. The mice are beautifully drawn, and are very expressive, which really gives the story depth, especially when there are panels, or even pages, with few words, if any. And these mice, as cute as they might look at times, are fierce. (and no, not in a Christian Siriano-type way, either). The adventure story here is pretty serious. The first book, Fall 1152, has three members of the Mouse Guard investigating the disappearance of a traveling grain merchant. However, all is not as simple as it might seem; along the way, they uncover a plot to attack Lockhaven, the home of the Guard (and there is also danger along the way in the form of nasty snakes and other things). In the second book, the story continues on into winter, with the Mouse Guard wading into even more dangerous territory. The plot in the second book seemed a little thinner to me at times, but the beautiful art carried along the story with no problem.

I had ordered these books for our adult graphic novel collection, although I think a younger audience would enjoy them, as well (even though there are some scary parts). It's not the usual kind of book I read, but they were a nice break from my stack of to-be-reads. If you're looking for something a little different, these might be just the trick. I know there's a third book on the way, but no idea when that'll be published.