Description
Product Description
Able to claw straight up a brick wall, squeeze through a pipe the width of a quarter, and gnaw through iron and concrete, rats are also revealed in this fascinating book to be incredibly intelligent and capable of great compassion. Weaving science, history, culture, and folklore, awardwinning writer Albert Marrin offers a look at rats that goes from curious to repulsive, horrifying to comic, fearsome to inspiring. Arresting blackand- white scratchboard illustrations with bold red accents add visual punch to this study of a creature that has annoyed, disgusted, nourished, and intrigued its human neighbors throughout the centuries.
From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 4-6–Rats and humans have had a very long love/hate relationship as readers discover in this lively and informative overview of the history and behavior of the widely encountered rodent. Emphasizing the animal's capabilities for survival, Marrin offers both anecdotal accounts of human/rat encounters and impressive statistics. Rats have occupied the Earth far longer than humans, and they compete prodigiously for the world's food supply, earning their reputation as major pests to humankind. On the other hand, they provide an important source of protein for the many humans who eat them worldwide. (Not a pleasing bit of information for readers who have loved them as pets.) The nine short chapters are set in a handsome slim book with striking black-and-white scratchboard illustrations and muted red framing on many pages. Marrin touches briefly on physical characteristics as he explains the veneration of rats in some cultures, attempts to eradicate them in others, and rats as both carriers of disease and valued subjects of medical research. It's a different sort of discussion and format for this well-known historian and biographer and one that he has clearly enjoyed, as will a wide variety of nonfiction readers and animal fans. There's a bibliography of adult sources and children's nonfiction as well as a listing of literary works featuring rats.
–Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Gr. 3-5. Children fond of nonfiction that is laced with discomfiting--or downright revolting--information will happily fall upon this anecdotal look at the shared history of the animal kingdom's greatest survivors. Along with portraying rats in many roles, from pests to pets, Marrin (best known for his histories for older readers) introduces rodent relatives and provides glimpses of rats' habits and innate intelligence, as well as their history as disease carriers, lab animals, predators, and ("Grilled Rat, Bordeaux Style," anyone?) even entrees. Red highlights (including red eyes on the rats and red borders on some of the pages) add an ominous tone to Mordan's many naturalistic, deeply shadowed illustrations, which have the look of wood engravings. Although there are no source notes, Marrin closes with short lists of relevant fiction and nonfiction. Richard Conniff's
Rats! The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (2002) offers sometimes-arresting photographs and more specific information, but this book makes a pleasantly icky additional purchase.
John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
About the Author
Albert Marrin is a much-decorated historian and writer whose most recent book,
Terror of the Spanish Main, was called "addictive reading" in
The Horn Book. He lives in Riverdale, New York.