A group of our children read and reviewed this title via The Reading Agency's Chatterbooks group. Here are their opinions. 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.” So I found myself rooting for Miika to see the truth. See that Bridget is toxic. Yes. It is a friendship with a mouse, and you clearly want that, but this is just not healthy. I was just hoping that he would just find the courage to shout NO at her. To tell her the truth. To tell her that she can just go on dangerous stuff herself.

And though Ulla named the other twelve offspring who arrived that night, she had fallen fast asleep by the time she got to Miika. 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. Miika also heard her give his brother some advice, and Miika pretended the advice was really for him. 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.

Are you a teacher?

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

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.”

Success!

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. He meets Bridget the Brave, who lives in another tree where she has piles of mushrooms and elf cheese, and an adventure begins. 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! 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