"The Mouse who lived in Lingfield Library" story writing competition, held in late 2016, attracted over 300 entries, with an age range from 5 to 11. The stories all showed a lot of imagination and it was difficult to judge. The authors of the following entries, taking age into consideration and the way they related to the library, books and reading, were each awarded a book token prize. The following are transcripts of their hand written entries without any corrections.

The Mouse who lived in Lingfield Library  (Age 6)

There was a mouse called Jack who was small. With a small tail and had small firy eres. He livd in the Old Lingfileld libary. He loved his fravret seecret hole. The Libaray was dusty and spoocy. There were Ghosts and Goblins. He was so bord so he found some books they were nice books and in thesting they were sooper. He found icsiting B ooks. They were about ninjgo. They were awsam. He started to reed.

The Mouse who lived in Lingfield Library  (Age 7)

Once apon a time in Lingfield Library there was a big, brown mouse called super cheese and he always wanted to be at the book of cheese. Super cheese had a problem because he couldn’t take his eyes off the book of cheese. Because of that he would just stare at it all day. But one day a nice little girl came and took the book of cheese and left a bunch of cheese in a hole and super mouse called it the cheese hole and all day he would eat and eat and eat. But that was a problem. The nice girl came back to give the book back.

The Mouse who lived in Lingfield Library  (Age 7)

Stella favourite place is in the book case. Stella gets very upset because she can not read. The girls and boys teach Stella to read so she gets realy happy. Stella has a realy pointy nose. She stops her self with it. Stella reraly bored in the lingfield library. Super Stella climes out of the book case. She mets a nover mouse who was called Jack. They clime in the book case and read a book together. Stella and Jack were very nice mice so (read) evry day befor they go to sleep. In the morning there was a little girl and boy whatching the mice read together. The children sit and lisen to Stella and Jack read. So the children get a book out of the case and the children sit all together. The mice get bored reading so they lisen to the children read to them. So they have a lovly day lisining to the children read to them because it is such a good sweet book they just love it so much they all can not stop reading and stop lisen, the children love reading so much. 

The Mouse who lived in Lingfield Library  (Age 9)

Once upon a time there was a mouse called Rodrick. Rodrick loved to read but after a while he felt lonely, as he was locked up in a library he couldn’t find a friend. In fact the only friend he had was the ones in the books. But one night he heard something “who’s  there” he squeaked but no answer. So he scuttled out of his hole and into the children’s section. But what he saw wasn’t human attally it was human but  not alive ……it was a ..GHOST!! “AHHHH” Rodrick squealed “who are you?”

“I’m a ghost” he said “I can see that “Rodrick yelled angrily.”  “My name’s Reece” he said spookily. “My name’s Rodrick” the mouse said, calming down. “So why are you here?”  “I haunt this  library” he crackled “I’ve had a cough! I’m getting old! OH! Speaking age its my 1684th Death day in two weeks” Reece shouted.

“I’ve got a problem” Rodrick said, sadly “I want to go and see the world but I am stuck in this stupid library” he said angrily.

“Well I might be able to help you” Reece said. “Yippey” screamed Rodrick. He jumped straight at the ghost trying to hug him but he went through him. “How are we going to escape?” Rodrick asked. “You’ll see” Reece said mysticly. 6 hours later…. “The flippin library is open how are we going to escape?”  “You’ll see” said Reece. Rodrick sneaked past all the people, waited for the door to open and … He was free!  “FREEDOM” He shouted and ran off. Reece saw a story on the wall, it was titled “The mouse that lived in Lingfield Library” Ah this looks interesting and started to read.  

THE END

 The Mouse who lived in Lingfield Library  (Age 11)

It was a gloomy evening at Lingfield library. The librarians talked in hushed voices as the storm outside raged. “Do you think we’ve got a ghost?”  One of them asked. “Why do you think that?” The other one replied. “Well, suddenly the lights turn off, books fall off shelves on their own and the clocks keep going backwards.” Said the first.

High above them, a little white mouse listened in. He was the creator of the problem. The reason he did it was because he loved the building and the peace and quiet. And so, he hated people because they disturbed his peace and quiet. What most people loved was the historic fittings and the stained glass, diamond paned windows. However, what he loved was the secret passages and hidey-holes, the nooks and crannies.  That was why he played the tricks, but why the books fell was a different matter. He lived in a warren of holes and passages that let him go around most of the library without being seen. He could run behind the shelves, and sometimes, in his excitement, he knocked books off.

After the librarians had gone, he settled down in his hole behind the tapestries until the next day, when ….

Creeeak! The door complained loudly as a small girl called Lucy and her mother walked into the library. At precisely that moment, a small, dark shape darted past the ancient tapestries that hung on the back wall, crawled along the top of the curtains and hung there. It jumped over the bookshelf and stood there. It leaped off the shelf and hit the light switch, plunging the whole room into darkness. .”It’s a ghost!” Shouted the little girl. “No, don’t worry, someone must have turned the light out. I’ll go and turn it on.” Said one of the librarians. Then as the light flicked on, Lucy saw a movement. “Oh, it’s a little mouse!” She exclaimed. Then she turned to the librarians and said, “I think this might be the ghost!”

“Well, I think we’ll be off.” Said her mum.

“I wish I had that mouse.” Whispered Lucy to herself.

***

The next time she came, Lucy waited for the mouse to scamper over to the switch, and as he jumped at it … Lucy caught him!

‘Please look after me’ his coal black eyes seemed to say.

“Ok,” Lucy whispered to him and carried him home. At first when he came to Lucy’s house, he was excited. Crumbs! Food! And best of all, someone kept leaving the cheese out! It was warmer than the library. Just as he was thinking about this, a shadow loomed over him. It was a cat! He had heard about cats from other mice, but had never seen one for real. He ran away as fast as his legs would carry him, but there were no hidey holes as she lived in a modern house.

A month later, Lucy brought him back to the library. The mouse thought, ‘It’s been a lovely holiday at Lucy’s, but it good to be home.’

“I’ll visit you every time I come,” murmered Lucy to him.

The End