Primary school pupils who have been challenged to come up with an illustration for a children’s book about mice invading a family home came face-to-face with a real mouse.

Danni Smith, of Cob Place, Godmanchester, has written Mouse in the House based on her experience of finding rodents in her home. The story tells how they caught the mice using a humane trap, before releasing them back into the fields.

It is written from the perspective of her son, Ned, who goes to St Anne’s School, where Mrs Smith read her tale to pupils. She also arranged for Nic Haresign from Wood Green, the Animals Charity to bring in a mouse, a two-year-old called Hurricane, on January 15 to help inspire the children.

Mrs Smith said: “I loved reading to the kids. It was funny because there’s a part in it where the mouse suddenly appears from behind the toilet as the mum is sat on it, which actually happened to me. I thought that would be the bit they’d laugh at and they did, which proves there’s something in toilet humour!”

Once her book is published, Mrs Smith has pledged to donate a percentage from sales towards the school’s project to replace its trim trail and the Raise the Roof Appeal for Saint Mary the Virgin Church in Godmanchester.