FIRE IN MOUSE HAMLET R. Brain Mackey. Illustrated by S. Alexander Clarke. n.p., Sunrise Publishing Enterprises, c1977. Distributed by the author, 1212 Agincourt Rd., Ottawa, ON, K2C2J1. unpaged, paper, $2.50. ISBN 0-9691496-0-3. Pre-School-Grade 3. Reviewed by Janet E. Goldack. Volume 11 Number 6. 1983 November. Cricket Fieldmouse loves berries, but his plan to have a delicious breakfast of wild berries is thwarted when his "mouse nose" smells smoke and he notices Tinker Rat bicycling away from the burning woodbox behind Mouse Hamlet Library. "Quick as the wink of an old snowy owl," Cricket awakens the inhabitants of Mouse Hamlet. Although it is discovered the fire wagon has no water, the hamlet is saved by Cricket Fieldmouse who organizes a mouse water-line to extinguish the flames. The happy ending is climaxed by the Hamlet declaring Cricket Fieldmouse a hero and by Tinker Rat making amends. The reader's imagination is perked by the picturesque language used throughout this moralistic tale. All the characters are mice with human frailties reminiscent of a Beatrix Potter novel. The script-printing and the black-ink illustrations on cream-coloured paper add authenticity to the author's preface that the story is "taken from the diary of Angus Archibald Field-mouse. . .Fire Chief of the District of Mouse Hamlet." Janet E. Goldack, Grant Park H. S., Winnipeg, MB.