Oh, hi, Miika,” said Nikolas, smiling. He kept on walking. “Sorry. We’re in a bit of a rush. I’d love to stop and chat, but there’s an Elf Council meeting in two minutes. It’s quite urgent. It’s about gingerbread supplies. See you later!”

Bei mir ist es nun schon wieder eine ganze Weile her, dass ich die dreibändige Weihnachtsserie von Matt Haig gelesen und gehört habe und obwohl meine Erinnerungen an die genauen Ereignisse inzwischen nicht mehr die frischesten sind, habe ich völlig problemlos in „Eine Weihnachtsmaus namens Miika“ hineingefunden. Meinem Empfinden nach kann man das Buch auch ohne jegliche Vorkenntnisse lesen bzw. hören. Es hängt zwar mit der eigentlichen Reihe zusammen, erzählt aber dennoch eine eigenständige und in sich abgeschlossene Geschichte. 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! It wasn’t because mice don’t give each other names. Because they do. Of course they do. It’s just that normally parents give baby mice their names when they are born, and the trouble with Miika’s parents was that they didn’t actually know he existed.An hour later, Miika was still nibbling on that delicious elf cheese as he rested against the big brown furry belly of his favorite reindeer of all, Blitzen. 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. 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.

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. If you’ve read A Boy Called Christmas, The Girl Who Saved Christmas, Father Christmas and Me and / or The Truth Pixie, you’ll have some idea of the charm and adventures in this latest in Matt Haig’s Christmas series.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. A Mouse Called Miika is a middle-grade children’s book in the Christmas series by British author, Matt Haig. Miika, the 101st son of (very tired) Ulla and (deceased) Munch, departed the tree hole where he was born without a name. After discovering how hard it was to survive in The World Outside, he was overjoyed to inhabit the cabin deep in the woods of Finland where Joel and Nikolas eked out a living. He was equally happy to join the quest Nikolas made to the Far North, and very satisfied to be living near Elfhelm in a tiny cottage with the Truth Pixie, where Loka the elf occasionally gives him cheese. Miika also heard her give his brother some advice, and Miika pretended the advice was really for him. A group of our children read and reviewed this title via The Reading Agency's Chatterbooks group. Here are their opinions.

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.” 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. 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.”

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Miika just wants to belong. Living with elves and trolls and pixies can make a mouse feel like the odd one out. 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.