At the very top of a country that humans call Finland is a little town called Elfhelm, which is the most unique place on the whole planet. A place you won’t find on any map. A place full of brightly colored wooden houses on winding streets. A place full of elves and flying reindeer and the occasional pixie. But no one was listening. His words fell unnoticed, like snow thawing to rain before it hits the ground.

This,” she told all the little mice as they gathered round, “is something really quite exciting. It is a whole button mushroom. The best in the forest! Since we’ve already eaten today, we’ll all go to sleep now and have it for breakfast tomorrow.” He had been pushed aside and squashed and squished and squeezed, and in the end had been left with only the tiniest of crumbs. So he just sat there, staring at the mushroom in front of him, and remembered his early life, when he lived in a dark and damp tree hole. . . . In this world, little brother, it is best to care only about yourself. As soon as you start caring about others, you have to deal with all sorts of problems. So head for the cheese whenever you can. If you find enough cheese to live on, you will never--and I repeat, NEVER--want for anything else. That is as good as life gets.”But to Miika it was a roar, and he felt so scared that he shook like a leaf in the breeze and said nothing. When he makes friends with a fellow mouse, Miika thinks he can relax. But really, his quest is just beginning… When Nikolas’s father failed to return home from a voyage, Nikolas took Miika on a perilous journey to find him. They shared a big adventure in the Far North. And Miika felt like they were the best friends in the whole world.

I liked the structure of the books. I recommend it to anyone who likes to read to their heart's content, from 8 years old and up. TA I read this with my mum. We loved how some parts made us smile, some parts made us sad, some parts made us worry. We would recommend it to all ages, children and grown-ups alike. IF&SF Miika heard voices and turned to see Nikolas walking briskly across the field, making boot prints in the snow. His head was bowed, and he was busy talking to some elves from the workshop. And he knew that if he waited until morning, he wouldn’t get a bite of the mushroom. And it looked so tasty. For days and weeks after leaving the tree hole, he spent every night shivering from cold and fear, never finding enough mushrooms to eat, sleeping under soggy leaves and dreaming of having a full tummy.

Success!

I was a 100% not fan of Bridget the Brave! I mean, I love her name. I love that she speaks up and isn’t going to be shy. But I didn’t like how she pushed Miika. Made him feel bad if he didn’t want to do anything, using the I am your only friend card heavily. I didn’t like how she just wouldn’t see that elves and the others aren’t that bad. Instead she kept badmouthing them even though she knew that Miika cared about them. I just wanted to shove a giant snowball into her face. 😐 She should be renamed to Bridget the Rude. Or Bridget the Angry. There he found comfort and a warm fire. Nikolas became his friend and taught him how to speak human words. And it was Nikolas who gave him his name--Miika. Meet Miika, a small little mouse who used to have no name because of how big his family was but thanks to Nikolas Miika got a name + more! And in this book we follow Miika on his way to find himself. I loved Miika instantly. He was such a fun character and I really loved how brave and sweet he was. And when he became magic… I just had fun seeing him discover his powers. He had a big love for cheese and I loved that he was looking forward to cheeses. I think that is also why he just went for the dangerous plot that Bridget the Brave cooked up. But Ulla just rolled over in her sleep. And Miika left the darkness and the damp and his siblings and headed out into the world.

And Miika spent those early days very hungry indeed. He was the weakest, smallest, youngest, most ignored and underfed mouse in the whole crowded, dark, damp tree hole, and probably had the rumbliest tummy in the entire universe. Miika also heard her give his brother some advice, and Miika pretended the advice was really for him. And though Ulla named the other twelve offspring who arrived that night, she had fallen fast asleep by the time she got to Miika. Illustriert wurde das Buch, wie bereits Matt Haigs vorherige Weihnachtsbücher, von Chris Mould. Er hat die Erzählung mit zahlreichen detailreichen schwarz-weiß Illustrationen versehen und egal ob die kleineren oder die ganz- und doppelseitigen Bilder – alle harmonieren sie hervorragend zum Geschehen im Text und machen das Lesen zu einem einzigartigen Erlebnis.So it was a joy when Miika finally found another mouse to hang out with. Bridget the Brave lived in a tree with a messy hoard of mushrooms and stolen cheese. Unlike Miika, she wanted nothing to do with the other creatures of the Far North.

Overall this is a lovely book with a great story which I’m sure many children will enjoy. It works well as a standalone story and is a brilliant story with a heart-warming ending about a mouse discovering the truth about himself and friendships. It’s also a funny story too, especially later when the trolls are involved, it just becomes even more funny and silly, but also brilliant too. A great story which is perfect for reading at Christmastime. Ratatouille meets Roald Dahl in the funny and fantastical story of a determined mouse on a mission to procure the world's tastiest cheese. From the author of A Boy Called Christmas– now a Netflix movie starring Kristen Wiig, Maggie Smith and Henry Lawfull! Then he overheard his sister Yala talking to one of his brothers about something called the World Outside. I would highly recommend this lovely book full of magic, trolls, tons of yummy cheese, elves, and self-discovery to all!

And then they were off. Galloping across the snowy field, which even in the middle of summer was as white and fluffy as a beard. A group of our children read and reviewed this title via The Reading Agency's Chatterbooks group. Here are their opinions. Irgendwo am nördlichsten Zipfel von Finnland, an einem Ort, den man auf keiner Landkarte finden kann, liegt ein kleines Dörfchen namens Wichtelgrund. Hier leben Wichtel, fliegende Rentiere und Elfen – und eine winzige Maus namens Miika. Von diesem kleinen Mäuserich handelt diese Geschichte. A Mouse Called Miika is an epic adventure story on a miniature scale. It’s a tale of mice and men (and more mice). It is about one independent mouse who gets fed up with the other mice, and sets out on a quest of his own to prove that cheese exists, and learns to appreciate other creatures. It is also a tale of great love (of cheese) and great danger. And learning the lesson that, with cheese, as with life, what matters most is not how strongly you smell, but how strong you are on the inside.