Skilly the cat becomes the mouser at the Cheshire Cheese Inn, home to a wonderful cheese made in house and an overpopulation of mice. Also at the inn are an unscrupulous barmaid, an injured Tower of London raven named Maldwyn, the cranky cook and cheesemaker, and Pip, a mouse with incredible talents. Frequent visitors to the inn include Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Skilley has a secret: he doesn't like to catch and eat mice, preferring cheese instead. With the help of Pip he has an agreement not to harm the mice as long as they continue bringing him cheese. Then the mouse hating barmaid brings in Pinch, a mean and vicious cat who is deadly to the mice and has set his sights on Maldwyn. The fate of the raven threatens both the Inn and the British Monarchy. During all of this Dickens struggles with finding the perfect opening sentence for his novel A Tale of Two Cities. (The first line of this book is "He was the best of toms. He was the worst of toms.") A surprise visitor and the help of Mr. Dickens brings the story to a satisfying conclusion. This is a fun chapter book and a possible candidate for the Treehouse Book Club.
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