Alexander McCall Smith’s Marvellous Mix-ups

Alexander McCall Smith's Marvellous Mix-ups is a pair of funny, gentle stories for 5 year olds, starring children who land in the middle of glorious muddles.

What happens

In Spaghetti Tangle, brother and sister John and Nicky live with Aunt Rebecca, President of the Carrot and Nut League. Dinner is raw onion rings and diced turnip, followed by a nice glass of carrot juice. They've never even tasted spaghetti!

Then Nicky gets some birthday money from an uncle and treats them both to lunch at the smartest restaurant in town. They can't afford a single thing on the menu, but a kind waiter makes sure they don't leave hungry. That first bowl of spaghetti changes everything.

Soon there's a sauce competition, a visit to Mr Pipelli's spaghetti factory and a machine that goes badly wrong. John ends up wrapped from head to toe in a mountain of spaghetti (getting him out takes a LOT of olive oil). John even talks Aunt Rebecca into letting them go, by pointing out how rude it would be to turn down an invitation. And she turns out to have a softer side nobody expected.

In Teacher Trouble, tall, ten-year-old Jenny starts a new school looking so smart and grown-up that her class decide she must be the new teacher. How long can she keep that up?

These are old-fashioned in the nicest way. The grown-ups are kind or batty or both, the jokes are silly and there's lots of lovely food. There's even a six-course spaghetti lunch, including spaghetti that sways like a cobra while you try to eat it!

The chapters are short, which makes them just right for reading together at bedtime. Who wouldn't want to eat spaghetti every day after this?

What to read next

Food-loving readers could try The Perfect Hamburger next. It's another Alexander McCall Smith story, about Joe, a kind old burger-seller and a shiny new rival opening in town.