Mice & Mendelson

Joan Aiken's Mice & Mendelson is a collection of gentle, very funny stories for 8 year olds about an old pony and the two field mice who play the piano for him.

What happens

Mr Mendelson is a very old Orkney pony. He's only about three feet high, but his head is so big and handsome that he looks like a much larger horse with half-length legs. He lives in Midnight Park, a wild old park far in the north of England.

His best friends are Gertrude and Bertha. Every day they brush his shaggy coat. Every evening at six o'clock they run up his tail onto the keyboard of a piano under the oak tree and play him waltzes and polkas. (They learned by watching a musician who once lived in the park. As you do.)

Mr Mendelson worries about everything and asks a LOT of questions. Why are there two six o'clocks? What is the moon, and why doesn't it fall down? The mice always have an answer, and it's never the same answer, and they argue about it very politely.

Each story is short and complete. He gets hiccups and gallops backwards across the park. He's convinced the moon has fallen into the pond. And a sly swindler called Dan Sligo keeps trying to trick the old pony out of his piano or his watch, only for the mice to outwit him.

They're wonderful to read aloud. Mr Mendelson grumbles in the most gloriously dramatic way ("Oy, moy!"), and his answer to extra time is that enough is sufficient. The mice are sharp, busy and brave.

One thing to talk about if you're sharing it. Dan Sligo is called "the gypsy" all the way through, and he's the thief in every story. That's an old stereotype of Gypsy and Traveller people, and a lot of families will want to chat about why it isn't fair. The stories also mention in passing that Sam's parents have died.

If your reader loves old-fashioned stories with a gentle kind of silliness, a talking pony and some very clever mice, this is a real treat for bedtime.

What to read next

If they'd like more of Aiken's odd everyday magic, try A Necklace of Raindrops. The North Wind gives baby Laura a silver chain of raindrops, and each new drop brings a new power, until a girl at school decides she wants it for herself.