Holiday Mice! is the informal title of a children's book series written by Bethany Roberts and illustrated by Doug Cushman. It was published between 1995 and 2004 by Houghton Mifflin's Clarion imprint; reception was mixed to positive.
The series, which consists of seven titles, was referred to as Holiday Mice (without the exclamation mark) by Publishers Weekly in 2004. In each book, a family of miceâÂÂtwo children plus their mother and fatherâÂÂcelebrate the titular holidays. Author Bethany Roberts had previously written the Waiting-for Series, a trilogy in two of whose installments a rabbit family celebrated spring and Christmas.
Reception of the Holiday Mice! books was mixed-to-positive. Cushman's artwork was praised, but occasional criticism was leveraged towards Roberts' "choppy" rhyming text.
Reviewing the debut installment, Halloween Mice!, Virginia Opocensky of the School Library Journal (SLJ) remarked that the "Full-page watercolors are appropriate for the holiday while not too scary for the intended audience." When Christmas Mice! was published a few years later, another SLJ reviewer wrote, "The rhyming text works hard to stick to a basic vocabulary, but the story falls flat." The publication noted similar problems with the later Thanksgiving and Birthday installments, but gave their approval to Fourth of July; Carol Marshall nitpicked Thanksgiving historical accuracy.
Publishers Weekly gave Halloween a mixed review: "Roberts's text lacks the rhythm or drama of a good read-aloud. Cushman's watercolor mice set a cheery holiday mood but don't add much zing." Two years later, the magazine called Valentine's Mice! "[a] spirited if slight holiday caper."