The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Discworld)
by Terry Pratchett
published
November 1st 2001
by HarperCollins
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binding
Hardcover, 256 pages
isbn
0060012331
(isbn13: 9780060012335)
description
Winner of the 2001 Carnegie Medal
One rat, popping up here and there, squeaking loudly, and taking a bath in the cream, could be a plague all by himself. After a few days of this, it was amazing how glad people were to see the kid with his magical rat pipe. And they were amazing when the rats followed hint out of town.
They'd have been really amazed if they'd ever found out that the rats and the piper met up with a cat somewhere outside of town and solemnly counted out the money.<...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1877)
Read in July, 2007
Well, I have definitely learned a lot about rats. I have mixed feelings about this book. Terry Pratchett is usually SO GOOD at mixing light-hearted silliness with a more macabre subject matter, but this time something felt a little… off. The rats are great at first, a nice blend of ratty grossness and the angst that comes with sudden enlightenment… or puberty. The rat characters are well-developed and as authentic as a bunch of talking rats can be. Maurice the cat is also a wonderful ch...more
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Reviewed by Candace Cunard for TeensReadToo.com
I have always been told that, as a fan of fantasy and humor, I needed to read Terry Pratchett. And after reading THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS, I now understand what everyone was talking about. Pratchett's style is simultaneously witty, entertaining, and incisive; he succeeds in this children's book in saying more about society than most adult books ever manage, and he does so while making you laugh out loud.
Set in an obscure...more
I have always been told that, as a fan of fantasy and humor, I needed to read Terry Pratchett. And after reading THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS, I now understand what everyone was talking about. Pratchett's style is simultaneously witty, entertaining, and incisive; he succeeds in this children's book in saying more about society than most adult books ever manage, and he does so while making you laugh out loud.
Set in an obscure...more
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The stuff about the rats, especially in the first part, is brilliant. Pratchett gets animals in general and rats (which I adore) in particular. He captures their characteristic contradictions - aggressive cowardice, bold caution, intelligence and idiocy. The part about the humans isn't anything special, though, and the worst thing about the book is that it just wanders off and ends up being a completely different story, with different protagonists, p of v, and everything, than it started out as....more
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recommends it for:
everyone
A truly amazing book targeted at younger readers but with a story that transcends age
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Read in November, 2008
Pratchett never fails to make me laugh and, at least for a few hours, forget my world and prefer his. The Amazing Maurice proved it again, and he managed to make fun of fluffy bunny stories, the Red Wall books, human politics, government corruption, the foundations of organized religion, and language itself. While doing it, he also managed to hold up the value of a purpose-driven, service-oriented, spiritual life. AND he made me laugh out loud. Gotta love that. Still, I enjoyed Moving Pictures, ...more
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Read in July, 2008
I picked this book up a couple of years ago at a bookstore in an airport and had never gotten around to reading it until now. I wish I had read it sooner. It's a really funny, clever book.
Maurice is a talking cat. He runs a scam with a group rats of talking rats. The rats pose as a 'plague' so a boy posing as a rat piper can lead them all away and collect payment.
I have seen a few reviews complaining about how dark it is, perhaps because this is was marketed as a YA book, but I didn't...more
Maurice is a talking cat. He runs a scam with a group rats of talking rats. The rats pose as a 'plague' so a boy posing as a rat piper can lead them all away and collect payment.
I have seen a few reviews complaining about how dark it is, perhaps because this is was marketed as a YA book, but I didn't...more
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I think the only remaining Pratchett I haven't read, until he produces the next one. Plenty of fun, as zippy as ever, although one can see that Pratchett is banking on the fact that the "young adult" audience this book is pitched towards is too young to have read his earlier iterations of the same themes in the Bromeliad trilogy and in the early Discworld books--or (especially) his first book, The Carpet People. Also Pratchett seems to be on the verge of exhausting his Discworld settin...more
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Occasionally Pratchett
gets impenetrable
and I have to read backwards
because I need the ending
so I can avoid all the jokes
and asides and stick to the story
Not so with this book
which memorably features
talking rats and the Pied Piper
and the mayor's daughter
who represents all humanity
in her incredible ability
to invent a story based on few facts
and believe it
OBTW I don't really read any book
so forget the library binding shown here
I Kindle it
gets impenetrable
and I have to read backwards
because I need the ending
so I can avoid all the jokes
and asides and stick to the story
Not so with this book
which memorably features
talking rats and the Pied Piper
and the mayor's daughter
who represents all humanity
in her incredible ability
to invent a story based on few facts
and believe it
OBTW I don't really read any book
so forget the library binding shown here
I Kindle it
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Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
Adults and kids over 12
A rather stand-alone discworld edition, this novel is set in a small town (vs Ankh-Moorpark, Lancre, or Bad Ass,) but still has a familiar Pratchett tone. Aimed at what, teens? Tweens? Maurice and his rodential friends is a book well worth reading by adults, also, and is probably too intense for sensitive young readers, as some of the images are rather graphic. (Actually it's probably more intense than some of Pratchett's "adult" novels, possibly because the ideas are potentially a b...more
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Read in March, 2008
A Discworld novel intended for a young adult audience, Amazing Maurice is the hilarious story of a talking cat (Maurice), a young piper, and their band of “educated rodents” who move fro m town to town making a living by providing and then effectively removing rat infestations.
A clever, not to mention humorous, retelling of the Pied Piper folk tale, you can’t pass up Terry Pratchett.
A clever, not to mention humorous, retelling of the Pied Piper folk tale, you can’t pass up Terry Pratchett.
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Read in November, 2008
recommends it for:
4-6th grade
This book only suffered from excessive hype, it was recommend/insisted to me.
Pratchett's work remains a witty banter, with an increasingly rich world to draw you into the story.
The book is clever, a little surprising but not as good as some of the others I've come across in a more voluntary way.
Still worth reading.
Pratchett's work remains a witty banter, with an increasingly rich world to draw you into the story.
The book is clever, a little surprising but not as good as some of the others I've come across in a more voluntary way.
Still worth reading.
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Even if I didn't love every word that ever rolled off Terry Pratchett's pen (which I do) I would give this book a definite 5. It has everything you could want in a fantasy aimed at the young and young at heart: talking rats, stock fairytale characters turned on their ears, a cat who has teamed up with the rats, some really incompetent Exterminators and a Pied Piper who is (you guessed it) working with the rats.
It's funny on many levels. There's a scene where a - let's call him a bomb expert - ...more
It's funny on many levels. There's a scene where a - let's call him a bomb expert - ...more
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Read in February, 2003
Finished The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett. For just over 250 pages, it was a pretty quick read. I'm of two minds about it being a juvie - some of the descriptions were a bit grim, for example. But then again, ya gotta learn the hard lessons sometime. Not quite as serious as some of his later Discworld novels (see my comments on Night Watch) but a more polished work than the early ones.
The rats' names were a hoot - I may adopt Dangerous Beans as a nick for a whi...more
The rats' names were a hoot - I may adopt Dangerous Beans as a nick for a whi...more
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Well, I loved Terry Pratchett's "The Wee Free Men" so much that I thought I would be disappointed by this one. While I still liked those little blue miscreants better, this book was very entertaining. Maurice is simply a delicious character, and I loved the various rats (who, now that I come to think of it, remind me of the Wee Free Men). Of course they have great names, these rats, and that alone is worth the price of admission, as they say. Few authors can make me laugh out loud, but...more
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I guess I just don't like rats. Couldn't suspend my deep-seated human reaction to the idea of gangs and bunches of rats, especially ones even smarter than they are in reality. Same thing happened with the movie Ratatouille, cute funny movie, just the ick factor kept pulling me out of the story over and over again.
I still liked the book and bet that those who aren't as squicked out about rats would enjoy it even more than I did. Especially loved the character of Malicia, the girl who can't...more
I still liked the book and bet that those who aren't as squicked out about rats would enjoy it even more than I did. Especially loved the character of Malicia, the girl who can't...more
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Read in January, 2006
Maurice is a cat who leads a group, who happen to be talking mice...look, you eat garbage behind Unseen University and strange things happen. The group follows a piper and they scam villages by making it look like the piper lead all the rodents away. But they encounter a threat in one town that can't be fooled away and the mice decide to think for themselves instead of letting Maurice order them around. Another of his books for younger readers, this is a superb tale, great Pratchett satire, and ...more
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This is more of a stand-alone book, and it has all the great Pratchett earmarks, including very esoteric mythologies.
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
fantasy lovers, kids
I'm not sure if this is more of an adventure or a fantasy, but it was good fun! Pratchett is a master at taking a well known story and giving it a tweak or two until it becomes something completely unexpected. The story in question this time around is the Pied Piper. And the tweak is that the rats are in on the deal and agree to split the money with the piper. So much fun! I liked the cameo appearance by DEATH. If you're a fan of his Discworld books, this one is worth looking for in the kids boo...more
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
most anybody, but especially people with a taste for something strange and differently deep
The amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents was on of those books that totally took my under. There was some boring stuff in it, I must admit, but it didn't last very long. Mostly it was a very feeling book. With strange viewpoints, and, shall I say, morals. It seems strange for a young adult book like this one to make you feel so much... but it was written wonderfully (even though it has those few references to when the mice had to 'widdle' on things, which is very Terry Pratchett) and has tha...more
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Read in January, 2000
recommends it for:
guys who like funny fantasy
The Pied Piper tale gone horribly wrong! Ha, ha! The rats have gotten into the garbage behind the wizard's university, and Maurice (a cat) has gotten into the rats, and now they will never be the same.
They hit the road and used the Pied Piper story as a template to extort their way to a tidy sum. But now the rats aren't having fun anymore, and they are just about ready to call it quits, when they run into a village that already HAS a rat problem.
I love the juxtaposition of silly humor with...more
They hit the road and used the Pied Piper story as a template to extort their way to a tidy sum. But now the rats aren't having fun anymore, and they are just about ready to call it quits, when they run into a village that already HAS a rat problem.
I love the juxtaposition of silly humor with...more
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