Mouse Noses on Toast by Daren King

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
    A division of Penguin Young Readers Group.
    Published by The Penguin Group.
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    Text copyright © 2006 by Daren King. Illustrations copyright © 2006 by David Roberts.
    All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. Published in Great Britain in 2006 by Faber and Faber Limited, London. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
    Printed in the United States of America. Text set in Goudy Oldstyle.
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    King, Daren, 1972–    Mouse noses on toast / Daren King; illustrated by David Roberts. p. cm.   Summary: Paul Mouse gathers a group of mouse activists to uncover the mystery behind the delicacy known as “Mouse noses on toast,” which is served in a fancy human restaurant. [1. Food habits—Fiction. 2. Mice—Fiction. 3. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Roberts, David, 1970– ill. II. Title.   PZ7.K5764Mou 2008 [Fic]—dc22  2007016579
    ISBN: 978-1-101-65233-6
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MOUSE
NOSES
ON
TOAST
    DAREN KING
    Illustrated by DAVID ROBERTS
    G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS



PAUL MOUSE
    I N A BUSY TOURIST TOWN LIVED A MOUSE NAMED P AUL .
    Most mouses are friends with other mouses. Paul was an unusual mouse, not just because he was in a story, but because his friends were a variety of animals, creatures and objects.
    One of his friends was a Tinby, which is a sort of monster, though smaller than a monster and a lot more fun to be around. Like all Tinbys, it was curved at the top and flat at the bottom, with little square legs, tiny black eyes and nothing else. It was yellow and patterned with lime-green checks.
    If you are wondering why a Tinby is called a Tinby, you will find out later in the story, when the Tinby falls out of a window and makes a funny sound.
    Another of Paul’s friends was a Christmas-tree decoration, a plastic angel named Sandra who had been brought to life by a magician in another story.
    Paul, Sandra and the Tinby lived in a cardboard shoe box at the bottom of an overgrown garden. They didn’t know who owned the garden, but whoever it was had a dog named Rowley Barker Hobbs, who would run out into the garden every day and say hello.
    Rowley Barker Hobbs was a shaggy sheepdog, with a hairy head at one end and a busy tail at the other. If the head was happy the tail was happier, and wagged all day long to prove it.

THE ANTI-CHEESE SUIT
    P AUL DID HAVE SOME MOUSE FRIENDS, BUT