A Mouse Called Miika (Boy Called Christmas) - Hardcover

Haig, Matt

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593377397 ISBN 13: 9780593377390

Verlag: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2021

Inhaltsangabe

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!

When Nikolas left the only home he had ever known, it was a mouse named Miika who kept him company, and it was Miika who accompanied him on his journey to the Far North, in search of his father. But before the events of A Boy Called Christmas, this little mouse was the hero of his own story.

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.

Funny, cheeky, wise, and packed full of Matt Haig's signature warmth. This is set to become a year-round children's favorite.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

MATT HAIG is an author for children and adults. The Midnight Library and Reasons to Stay Alive were major bestsellers worldwide. His children's book A Boy Called Christmas was a runaway hit and is translated in over 40 languages. It is being made into a Netflix film and The Guardian called it an 'instant classic'. His children's novels have won the Smarties Gold Medal, the Blue Peter Book of the Year, been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and nominated for the Carnegie Medal three times.

CHRIS MOULD went to art school at the age of sixteen. He has won the Nottingham Children’s Book Award and has been commended by the Sheffield Children’s Book Award. He loves his work and likes to write and draw the kinds of books that he would have liked to have had on his shelf as a boy. Chris Mould is married with two children and lives in Yorkshire, UK.

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A Tale of Two Mice

Two mice were sitting in a forest, leaning against a pine cone. 

They were friends. And they looked quite ordinary. They had ordinary dark eyes, ordinary pink noses, ordinary tails. One mouse was a bit scruffier than the other. 

Where they lived, though, was quite un-ordinary. Because where they lived was the Far North. 

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. 

One of the mice was called Miika. He was the less scruffy of the two, but still a little bit scruffy. The brown fur on his chest and tummy was often dotted with mushroom crumbs. Unlike his friend, Miika liked the elves, the reindeer, and the pixies of Elfhelm. 

“I’m glad I found you,” he said, gazing through the snow-dusted trees. 

“And why is that, Miika?” asked the other mouse, who had mud on her fur and frost on her whiskers. The one whose name was Bridget the Brave. Well, really she was just called Bridget, but she always made Miika (and everyone else) call her Bridget the Brave. Because she was that sort of mouse. A mouse with attitude. 

“Because I don’t feel alone anymore. I have found someone who is just like me.” 

Bridget the Brave laughed. She looked past the tall pines, down toward the colorful wooden houses of the elf village that she hated so much. “You’re not like me, Miika.” 

“Why not?” 

“Well,” she said, “I am Bridget the Brave. I am fearless. You are not. That’s one difference.” 

Miika wondered what else made them different. But he was too scared to ask. 

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. . . .

 

The Mouse with No Name 

The first thing you should know about Miika is that he wasn’t always called Miika. 

When he was very little, he had no name at all.

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.

The reason his dad--Munch--didn’t know Miika existed was because when Miika was born, Munch was being eaten by a great gray owl. And it’s hard to be a good parent when you’re busy being digested.

His mum--Ulla--had less of an excuse because she was, at least, alive. But she was very, very, very tired. 

And the reason she was very, very, very tired was because Miika wasn’t her only little mouse. 

In fact, Miika was one of many little mice. 

He was the thirteenth--and last--of the litter.

And though Ulla named the other twelve offspring who arrived that night, she had fallen fast asleep by the time she got to Miika. 

When she woke up, Miika was just one of one hundred and nine mice she had given birth to that year, in a total of eleven litters. While some of those other babies were already brown and furry, unlike the pink and hairless gang of newborns, she still found it difficult to keep up with them all. And so she didn’t bother, and Miika spent his first few days and weeks believing he was called “That One” or “Him over There” or “Please Get Off” or “Your Bum Is in My Face.” 

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. 

But one day something happened. 

Ulla returned with a special find. 

“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.” 

But Miika thought, Hang on a minute. I haven’t eaten today. 

And he remembered the last time his mum brought home a mushroom for breakfast. 

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 this time he decided to do something different. 

That night, when all his brothers and sisters were sound asleep, he quietly crept over to his snoring mum and stared at the mushroom she was hugging in her sleep. 

His stomach rumbled. 

He stared and he stared and he stared. 

And he knew that if he waited until morning, he wouldn’t get a bite of the mushroom. And it looked so tasty. 

So he did something terrible. 

He gently tugged the mushroom out of his mum’s arms and had a tiny nibble. 

And then he had another nibble. 

And another. 

And another. 

And he kept nibbling until the whole mushroom was gone. 

And then he tiptoed far away and lay down and fell asleep. It was the best sleep he had ever had in his whole short life because it was the only time he’d had a full tummy. And there is no sleep as good as a full-tummy sleep. 

And he stayed fast asleep all night until a scream pulled him out of happy dreams. “WHO STOLE THE MUSHROOM?” Ulla roared at her drowsy litter. Well, maybe not roared. When a mouse roars, it’s loud only if you happen to be another mouse. Anyone else would hear just the tiniest of tiny squeaks. 

But to Miika it was a roar, and he felt so scared that he shook like a leaf in the breeze and said nothing. 

He said nothing all day. And he said nothing all night. 

He was so scared he would get found out that he felt sick. He needed to escape. But where could he go? 

Then he overheard his sister Yala talking to one of his brothers about something called the World Outside. 

“The World Outside is a very dangerous place full of deadly creatures called crows and owls and hawks and humans. But it also contains food. Mushrooms and insects and something wonderful known as cheese.” Yala’s shiny black eyes were wide open, and her tail was flicking with excitement, in time with every word.

Miika also heard her give his brother some advice, and Miika pretended the advice was really for him. 

“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.” 

Miika’s ears pricked up at the mention of cheese, but he pretended to be asleep. He knew they wouldn’t want him to join in if they saw him listening, so he stayed very still, curled up on a muddy leaf, and listened in the damp and the dark as if he were hearing a message just for him. 

The next morning, Miika scrambled over a hundred sleeping mice. 

“Sorry . . . sorry . . . sorry . . . oh . . . so sorry!” he said as everyone tutted and squeaked and grumbled and ouched at him. 

And then he reached it. 

The glowing, glorious, terrifying light. 

The entrance to...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593377397
• ISBN 13: 9780593377390
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Zeichner: Mould Chris
• Anzahl der Seiten: 140
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar