Michio Mouse and The Magic Spectacles

You may read this tale as a storybook to your little ones or have them read it themselves to stimulate them to find and seek their own Magic Spectacles and maybe for you to find yours. It may be best understood by the young and the young at heart. If you don’t fall into either category, don’t despair. Reflect on the ideas just the same and soon you will count yourself amongst those who do. Use it as a catalyst for inspiring self reflection. This tale may provide new insights about living according to Mother Nature’s ways and shows that a little mouse with big dreams can make a difference.

You may purchase Michio Mouse and The Magic Spectacles in three different options directly from here, either as a printed book, as an audio cd, or as a combination of both the audio cd and book. Below you can play the first chapter of the book or read the sample chapter, and you will find the three purchase options following this.

Play chapter 1 as an audio file

I rummaged in my pocket for the little piece of cheese that Mama Mouse had wrapped up for me as an after-school treat, while setting off on my way to visit Grandpa Mouse. My stomach gurgled in anticipation. Then I sighed with disappointment, as I remembered that I had already nibbled my way through my prized cheese ration at lunchtime, in the playground.

I put my stomach out of my mind as I turned the corner, and spotted Grandpa Mouse perched on the third shelf in the cheese curing room, where he always liked to sit, staring into infinity while contemplating the nature of things. As usual he was absentmindedly twirling his whiskers as he mulled over some important issue or other. There was no cheese curing there today — the shelves were bare and had been so for as long as I could remember. Not even a crumb remained as a reminder of the prosperity we had enjoyed in days gone by. Since the Cheese Factory had closed down, life had been hard for us mice who once enjoyed a life of comfort and plenty in the bustling factory we had the fortune to call home. “Oh Grandpa Mouse,” I cried, scurrying up the shelving to join the wise old mouse. “Will this famine ever end?”

“Young Michio,” Grandpa replied with the calm certainty of one who had weathered good times and bad in his long years. “Of course it will.

Everything that has a beginning has an end. It is part of the great cycle of Nature — the law of change — night becomes day; winter becomes spring, little mice grow up and fortunes change.”

“Really, Grandpa?” I asked. My rumbling stomach was intruding on our conversation. I wanted so desperately to share his conviction. “I can’t even remember a time when Mama Mouse wasn’t struggling to stretch a few cheese crumbs to feed us all.” I knew that watery cheese soup would be waiting at home for me at dinnertime and that I would go to sleep with an empty belly once again.

“Even when we had our class photos taken at the Maison Ignoramus school today,” I continued, “Mr Mousekahaira couldn’t bring himself to ask us to say ‘cheese’ as he does every year, to get us to smile for the camera. He tried to pull funny faces but all us little mice were too weary and hungry to smile. Then he came up with some strange word that I had never heard before, Grandpa. I think it was m… m… mochi… or something like that…” Grandpa’s nose stopped mid twitch and he spun around as if someone had just pulled his tail.

“What did you just say, Michio?” he demanded excitedly. “I was just explaining that when we had our photos taken…” I began. “No! No!” he interrupted me. “What did you say that your teacher asked you to say?”

“M… mochi, I think…” I stammered.

I was slightly concerned to see Grandpa in such a state. I hadn’t seen him so excited since the Cheese Factory owner gave the resident cat away to his niece for her birthday.

“Mochi, mochi,” he muttered, distractedly twirling his whiskers once more. “It has been a long time since I heard that mentioned.” “What is mochi, Grandpa?” I had never heard of it before today. “Only the most delicious thing that any mouse could hope to eat,” he replied with a faraway look in his eyes. I thought that the famine must finally be getting to Grandpa too, and that he was imagining all kinds of delicacies. But it seemed to be more than that. “It is made from whole grains, you know, young Michio.”

I didn’t. Well, I vaguely remembered that Mama Mouse used to make meals with bread crumbs that Papa Mouse would collect on his brave foraging mission into the cheese factory workers lunchroom. Papa said that is where

they ate a thing called ‘sandwiches’ — but I had never seen one before. I asked grandpa what he meant by whole grains.

“The very staff of life, Michio. Maybe if we could return to a more grain based diet like the one that nourished our foremice, our troubles would be over.”

My ears pricked up at the hope in Grandpa’s voice.

“But how? But how? Can we do this here in the city? At school we learnt that whole grains grow far, far away in the countryside… ” “Indeed they do, young Michio…” he replied, still staring into the distance. “Ah, if only we had the Magic Spectacles then we could see how to solve all our difficulties. By golly, old Mousekahaira must be feeling it too — thinking back to the old days, trying to remember what is was like — trying to think of a way to solve our problems. Well, young Michio, maybe that is where the solution lies. If only we could use the knowledge we had back then. Then we could all live in peace and prosperity once again. If only we had the Magic Spectacles… ”

As he uttered those words, my heart skipped a mouse beat. Magic Spectacles? There had been rumours at school some time ago about these but when I had asked Mama Mouse about them, she dismissed them as old mouse tails and told me to go outside and play and forget about folk tales and fables.

• Purchase Michio Mouse and The Magic Spectacles as a printed book $29.95 AUD including GST

• Purchase as an Audio CD $14.95 AUD including GST

• Purchase as both a Printed Book and Audio CD $39.95 AUD including GST