This is one of those books that expects a lot of children – many will need adult help to stick with it and understand its subtle, quiet beauty. There is little action, certainly nothing of the edge-of-your-seat sort that many of today’s youth are used to. The vocabulary is quite rich, much of which will be beyond the understanding of many kids (although the words are used very naturally, not arrogantly just to show off how erudite the author is, and the context helps for most words). The book is filled with references to other literature, both children’s and adult literature, which I suspect most children will not be familiar with. I loved this book, but then, I’m a middle-aged bookworm, not an active 10-year-old.
The story centers around the blossoming friendship between two very lonely creatures, one a writer, one a reader; one a human, one a rat. Walter, named for Sir Walter Scott, arrived at Miss Pomeroy’s residence an old and rather battered rat, fearful to be discovered lest Miss Pomeroy, like every other human, react with horror and terror and chase him out. Walter has always had the ability to read, but it’s only been here in the relative safety of Miss Pomeroy’s house that he has been able to exercise that ability with any sort of consistency. Here he is able to read entire books, not just the scraps of them dug out of the garbage.
The book is basically a slow revealing of Miss Pomeroy’s and Walter’s inner lives. We see Miss Pomeroy as an isolated hermit who hasn’t much care for the state of her home or garden. We suspect there must be more to her, as does Walter. After finding one of the children’s books that she has written, Walter is shocked – and even a bit offended – that she is described as a cook and a gardener, when he knows perfectly well she is neither. But what is even more offensive is that she writes books about a mouse named Bromberg. Just why is it that mice get all the good press, while rats are reviled and slandered as filthy disease carriers?
This betrayal is too much for Walter who simply must find a way to disabuse Miss Pomeroy – whom he had admired greatly – of such notions. On the other hand, he still does admire her (and he does, after all, still live in her house), so he must tread cautiously. And so begins the tentative correspondence and gradual, sublte transformation, of these two lonely souls.
The beginning of their correspondence offers a hint of suspense and the possibility of some action, but the only action turns out to be the drama of the revelations in the personality of Miss Pomeroy and the relationship between the human and the rat, but even that is very muted and quiet. We sense that there is a lot to Miss Pomeroy, perhaps some past tragedy that has left her so lonely and detached. But if so, we never find out what it is. Just the simple contact between two equal, albeit quite different, creatures, seems to be healing for both.
It’s difficult to rate this book or to give recommendations. I personally loved it, but I suspect most kids will label it “boring”. It’s probably best read with an adult or perhaps as part of a book group, and even then this is not a good introduction for new or reluctant readers. When I was in perhaps fourth or fifth grade I fell in love with Frances Hodgson Burnett’s THE SECRET GARDEN, and this book has a bit of the same flavor, so perhaps that would be a good book to try first. This book is aided immensely by Donna Diamond’s realistic (albeit black-and-white) illustrations sprinkled liberally throughout.
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