Kid and YA LiteRATure to Check Out: 8 Reads for the Year of the Rat
I hate rats. I've had a rat phobia since I was eight and saw a 3D movie with girant rats. It was a movie on the history of London and those rats that signified the Black Death have appeared in my nightmares periodically all my life since i first saw them. But the year of the rat is special to me in a way because it's the zodiac year of my firstborn, who we even contemplated naming Remy.
And I have to admit, some of my favorite books have rats in them. Most often these rats are villains, like Chiaroscuro in Desperaux and Ron's pet in Harry Potter. But there are, I admit, rats you can't help but like. Mostly in kids' books. The must-read to understand the significance of the zodiac year is the folktale of why the rat comes first. Here are my top eight books with rats, in order of reading level.
1. Tight Times - The characters in this book weren't intended to be rats, but I have to admit the illustrator's choice added an interesting dimension to the story, which is otherwise a cozy domestic story of how a family gets through the breadwinner's loss of his job.
2. Clementine and the Family Meeting - In this cute kids' book, Clementine's lab rat goes missing. While the rat doesn't cause as much mischief as I expected (nor does the maturing if still ever-restless Clementine), the story is fun and heartwarming, though to witness Clementine at her most Ramona-like hysterical, read the first two books of the series.
3. Otis Spofford - In its earlier companion book, Ellen Tebbits, Ellen plays a rat in a school play; here her archnemesis Otis befriends an actual rat. It's just one of the offbeat things Otis does, but shows he does have a heart despite taking his merciless teasing of Ellen too far.
4. The Pied Piper of Hamelin- The innocous-looking rats as drawn by Kate Greenaway allow her pretty children to take center stage. But of course the story would not have hapened without these unusually clean, rudimentarily-drawn rats.
5.Charlotte's Web - This classic has just about any animal you'd find on an American farm of old, though strangely, not a barn cat, which may explain the presence of one irritating, disgusting, but ultimately sympathetic character of a rat, Templeton. I don't exactly like him, but he definitely adds an interesting layer to the sweet friendship story.
6. A Little Princess - a true princess, Sarah believes, has no airs. And one way she demonstrates this is by befriending a rat in the attic of her school. The rat figures here very briefly but Sarah's little scenes with him are as delightful as those of Mary in sister book The Secret Garden, if not as pretty to picture.
7. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - the one book with a truly admirable community of rats, an animal tale with convincing science fiction elements this is one of my all-time favorite books.
8. Stargirl - one of the eponymous protagonist's quirks is that she has a pet rat. Not a white rat but a brown one named Cinnamon. While mostly in the background, the rat does play a role in the poetic romance at the heart of the book, making Cinnamon perhaps the most romantic rat in literature.
The presence of rats, which I hate, can't take away my love for these books. That, I think, is all the recommendation you need.
And I have to admit, some of my favorite books have rats in them. Most often these rats are villains, like Chiaroscuro in Desperaux and Ron's pet in Harry Potter. But there are, I admit, rats you can't help but like. Mostly in kids' books. The must-read to understand the significance of the zodiac year is the folktale of why the rat comes first. Here are my top eight books with rats, in order of reading level.
1. Tight Times - The characters in this book weren't intended to be rats, but I have to admit the illustrator's choice added an interesting dimension to the story, which is otherwise a cozy domestic story of how a family gets through the breadwinner's loss of his job.
2. Clementine and the Family Meeting - In this cute kids' book, Clementine's lab rat goes missing. While the rat doesn't cause as much mischief as I expected (nor does the maturing if still ever-restless Clementine), the story is fun and heartwarming, though to witness Clementine at her most Ramona-like hysterical, read the first two books of the series.
3. Otis Spofford - In its earlier companion book, Ellen Tebbits, Ellen plays a rat in a school play; here her archnemesis Otis befriends an actual rat. It's just one of the offbeat things Otis does, but shows he does have a heart despite taking his merciless teasing of Ellen too far.
4. The Pied Piper of Hamelin- The innocous-looking rats as drawn by Kate Greenaway allow her pretty children to take center stage. But of course the story would not have hapened without these unusually clean, rudimentarily-drawn rats.
5.Charlotte's Web - This classic has just about any animal you'd find on an American farm of old, though strangely, not a barn cat, which may explain the presence of one irritating, disgusting, but ultimately sympathetic character of a rat, Templeton. I don't exactly like him, but he definitely adds an interesting layer to the sweet friendship story.
6. A Little Princess - a true princess, Sarah believes, has no airs. And one way she demonstrates this is by befriending a rat in the attic of her school. The rat figures here very briefly but Sarah's little scenes with him are as delightful as those of Mary in sister book The Secret Garden, if not as pretty to picture.
7. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - the one book with a truly admirable community of rats, an animal tale with convincing science fiction elements this is one of my all-time favorite books.
8. Stargirl - one of the eponymous protagonist's quirks is that she has a pet rat. Not a white rat but a brown one named Cinnamon. While mostly in the background, the rat does play a role in the poetic romance at the heart of the book, making Cinnamon perhaps the most romantic rat in literature.
The presence of rats, which I hate, can't take away my love for these books. That, I think, is all the recommendation you need.
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