SOLVED. Fantasy book where there's a (pirate?) ship on fire, and LOTS of rats, and a castle with a super-thick (maybe?) rat-proof door? Read around 1998-2001. [s]

[Hannah]

I read this book somewhere between 8th-10th grades, potentially anytime between 1998-2001. I read it as a paperback, but it very well could have also been published in hard cover, too. I remember the front cover having some cover art, but I think it was framed/centered in some way (didn't go all the way out to the edges of the cover), because I feel like overall the cover was some shade of blue or purple. I could have sworn I owned this book (because I know I read it at least twice, maybe more), but I have never been able to find it among my belongings so I must have borrowed it (though whether it was from my school library or the public library I have no idea)...

It was age-appropriate, but I'm not sure if it would have been classified as YA or just as an older children's book? Like, it's definitely not for young children (too scary, maybe?), but I don't recall there being anything in it that would necessarily bump it up into the young adult section (language, gore, $exual content, etc.), if that makes sense?

Unfortunately the overall plot (start, middle, ending) is super fuzzy in my brain now, BUT I do remember certain parts, and I also remember that I had nightmares about it once or twice, and I would LOVE to be able to reread it as an adult (to see if it was really as unsettling as my pre-teen/teen brain remembers, or if I was just really going through something at the time, you know?)...if we can figure out what the heck it was called?

There was a ship full of rats that gets set on fire, and when all the rats (so, so many rats) bail from the flaming (cursed?) ship they make it to land and kind of overtake the castle, but there's a wooden (dungeon? pantry?) door in the castle that's SUPER thick and the hope is that the characters will be able to survive as long as the rats don't chew through the door? I feel like the ship might have been cursed in some way (magical or maybe just really bad circumstances?) and if my memory is right, the ship getting closer and closer to shore has a very heavy/ominous presence for a large part of the story, acting like a count-down timer to...something? I think the decision to set the ship on fire was one character's idea to try and eliminate the rat ship threat, but I don't remember if the plan went accordingly (and the need for the ultra-thick door was planned/expected) OR if it went horribly sideways (and the door ended up being a lucky, last-resort type of option)?

Most of this rat action/drama occurs at night, I think? And the more I think about it, I think the fact that this all happens at night has something to do with the curse on the rats/ship, because I feel like there was something in the story about how they only had to last behind the thick door until the sun rose or daylight or something like that and the curse would be lifted or have passed...something like that?

Honestly, the overall story in the book could be entirely unrelated to the rat-astrophy, but the sheer volume of rats swarming and infiltrating the castle walls is the part that gave me nightmares, so that's the only part that I remember...sorry!

HELP?

[Hannah]

Bumping because I edited my original comment/post from 06/20/2024 to include some additional details and also to organize those details a little better.

[Ruth]

Possibly The Battle for the Castle?

[Kris]

Google Books preview of The Battle for the Castle by Elizabeth Winthrop - Ruth's suggestion:

- https://books.google.com/books?id=AIS...
- There are different cover images.
- Book's summary: "Twelve-year-old William uses the magic token to return, through the toy castle in his attic, to the medieval land of Sir Simon, which is now menaced by a skeleton ship bearing a plague of ravenous rates."

One Goodreads reviewer says: "As the men set fire to the mysterious vessel, a giant rat with hundreds of rat followers swim ashore. The rats begin devouring every flesh-bearing creature along the coast. Using the rodents' abhorrence to light..."

[Hannah]

Ruth & Kris - YES! This is it, thank you SO much!
I didn't remember this being a sequel, but after reading the sample from Amazon, the bit about the kids' bicycles also being a thing kind of clicked in my memory, and I was pretty sure it was right just based on that small sample...
BUT THEN, I looked through the link you provided with the various cover images, and the cover art from the 1994-2000 publications registered in my brain instantly (lots of blue behind that moon!), so even though I'm going to have to wait my turn to borrow the single eBook copy that my public library system has available, after seeing that cover image I can say with certainty that this is definitely correct!
SOLVED! Hurray!

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Hannah.

The Battle for the Castle (book 2) of The Castle in the Attic series by Elizabeth Winthrop - Ruth's find.

[Ruth]

Brilliant, glad it was the right one!