We all know what trouble country mice can get into when they come to the city. In this jolly new picture book, author-illustrator Roslyn Schwartz follows the adventures of two little country voles who come to town and find themselves very hungry.

Pepperoni pizza is the first urban food item the voles come across, and the smell of it really impresses them, but other creatures turn out to be hungry, too. After resourcefully stealing the pizza, they have it stolen from them in turn by a crow and a troupe of ants, and then nearly become dinner for a large cat. The discovery of an urban flower garden, however, introduces the Vole Brothers to new gustatory delights (and, no doubt, leads to the Wanted poster at the start of the book).

Creator of the 10-book series about the Mole Sisters, Schwartz displays a sense of humour that is perfectly in tune with what will amuse a preschooler while reserving some entertainment for the adult sharing the book. The format here is one step away from a comic book, with voice bubbles for the brief (and very contemporary) dialogue. Only one sentence in the book has more than four words in it, and there are lots of exclamations and words in bold capital letters, but the language is well-suited to the events of the story and the facial expressions of the hungry voles, while the rich variety of action words describing various creatures chowing down will delight any reader.