I recently found all my old Brambly Hedge books and decided to re-read them. I am happy to report that the stores are just as good and the illustrations are just as gorgeous as I remembered them being. I think these are stories young and old alike can enjoy and the beautiful pictures will definitely be of interest to all ages. ( )

As always, the intricacy of Ms. Barklem's illustrations blow my mind. And the tenderness of the stories are sweet, too. This time, Primrose gets lost during a harvest season and tries to find her way home before the autumn rain hits. I love these seasonal stories. ( )

One of four miniature picture-books published together in 1980, each focusing on a different season in the life of a small community of rural mice - the residents of Brambly Hedge, lying "on the other side of the stream, across the field... amongst the tangled roots and stems" - Jill Barklem's Autumn Story is the tale of Primrose, daughter of Lord and Lady Woodmouse, who becomes lost in the forest after she wanders away from her father one busy harvest day. Her adventures picking wildflowers, and then exploring a vole colony, are paralleled by the frantic search undertaken (for her) by her elders...

Like the other entries in this series - Spring Story, Summer Story and Winter Story - I was completely charmed by Barklem's fully realized murine world in Autumn Story, not to mention her intensely detail-oriented illustrations. The interior scenes here would have had me endlessly poring over them, as a girl, while the stories and characters would have kept me amused and involved. Sweet without being cloying, these Brambly Hedge books are the perfect selection for the child who enjoys animal fantasy, and is somewhere between the early picture-book stage, and independent chapter-book reading. Just delightful! ( )