Since writing a middle-grade novel about a lab rat living on the International Space Station, I was curious to see how other authors tackled the challenge of creating stories about talking rats and mice. After all, these rodents are not generally popular in real life. What exciting approaches did others use to get past this dilemma? I wanted to see how they balanced the ideal—being true to the nature of a species—while constructing original characters in challenging situations. Analyzing how other writers succeed is always useful.
This book is an enchanting takeoff on the Cinderella story. You might think you know what happens the night of the ball, but the author takes you in twisty new directions that explore things you can’t help but be curious about once they are presented to you. For example, how does a rat feel about being turned into a human for a night? Told through the voices of both Cinderella and Prince Char, readers meet a rat who turns out to be wise and compassionate, alongside a Cinderella that is fearless and inspiring. I like how the characters are richly developed, and the way humor and originality flow throughout this quick-paced, gripping adventure.
Before Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters moved into Lancastyr Manor, she was known as the beautiful Lady Rose de Lancastyr. Then her stepmother forced her to become a kitchen maid and renamed her. At first the rats of the manor figure her for a lack-wit and take pity on her by bringing her food and a special family heirloom. But when Cinderella's stepmother finds a way to prevent her from attending the ball, the rats join forces to help her. The night of the ball is filled with magic and secrets - not least of all who Lady Rose will choose…
I enjoy finding science in places where you might not expect it. Science really is everywhere. It's tempting to think of it as its own category of news or its own shelf in the bookstore. But science is a way of thinking about every aspect of the world, including our passions and daily lives. I love finding the spaces where these lines are blurred, and these books are such great examples of finding science in surprising places.
I love animals, so I was fascinated to learn from this book that some of my favorites are considered pests by others. In this book, Bethany Brookshire talks to experts who study rats, mice, bears, pigeons, and many other animals.
It's especially interesting to see the same animals from different points of view: elephants are amazing to people who live far away from them but quite annoying to farmers who need to protect their crops from these large, destructive creatures.
In other chapters, we meet biologists who study bears, deer, or cane toads to help manage the way people and animals continue to coexist. The book made me look at animals in a new way, but I still love them.
An engrossing and revealing study of why we deem certain animals "pests" and others not-from cats to rats, elephants to pigeons-and what this tells us about our own perceptions, beliefs, and actions, as well as our place in the natural world
A squirrel in the garden. A rat in the wall. A pigeon on the street. Humans have spent so much of our history drawing a hard line between human spaces and wild places. When animals pop up where we don't expect or want them, we respond with fear, rage, or simple annoyance. It's no longer an animal. It's a…
So much of our culture and our fiction comes from taking older stories and ideas and reworking, blending, and adapting them into new forms. This cultural mixture has gifted us with some of the greatest works of English literature, and I’ve always been surprised and delighted to discover what people can pull out of older works and make. It’s why my first novels have followed the theme, and why I will always have time to check out a new story that builds on older ideas to create something new.
China Mievelle’s first work, a retelling of the story of the Pied Piper from the point of view of those that he commands, is a dark and gruesome story that gripped me from the first page. Difficult family relations, grim mysteries, and an ancient fable brought into the modern world—this book has it all!
Something is stirring in London's dark, stamping out its territory in brickdust and blood. Something has murdered Saul Garamond's father, and left Saul to pay for the crime.
But a shadow from the urban waste breaks into Saul's prison cell and leads him to freedom. A shadow called King Rat, who reveals Saul's royal heritage, a heritage that opens a new world to Saul, the world below London's streets--a heritage that also drags Saul into King Rat's plan for revenge against his ancient enemy,. With drum 'n' bass pounding the backstreets, Saul must confront the forces that would use him,…
Since writing a middle-grade novel about a lab rat living on the International Space Station, I was curious to see how other authors tackled the challenge of creating stories about talking rats and mice. After all, these rodents are not generally popular in real life. What exciting approaches did others use to get past this dilemma? I wanted to see how they balanced the ideal—being true to the nature of a species—while constructing original characters in challenging situations. Analyzing how other writers succeed is always useful.
Ratscaliburreveals what happens when a ragician turns grade seven student—Joey—into a rat. Joey becomes Ratscalibur when he pulls a spork from a dehydrated scone. The other rats are convinced he can help save their kingdom but Joey is not so confident. Still, if he wants the chance to become a boy again, he must help the rodents fight their devious enemies. Rich in humor, this book’s charm also comes from illuminating a character who is quite certain he’s not meant to be a hero. This novel is full of original twists that will keep readers turning pages.
I am a science journalist and former scientist who focuses on human-wildlife interactions, especially when those interactions turn sour. I’ve been fascinated by the animals people hate for years now, especially since I got to write on the earliest origins of the house mouse. To gain expertise, I was a 2019-2020 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, and have spent the past three years immersing myself in all things pest—from reaching into a coyote’s stomach to taking a whiff of elephant repellant. My freelance work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Science News, Sierra, and many other outlets.
It seems like a bit of a long title for a New York Times Bestseller but I promise this book is educational, entertaining, and worth every second. Sullivan spent a year observing a rat-infested alley, and came away with a better understanding of our least-favorite rodents, as well as the many people who spend their lives trying to keep rats and humans apart. At first it might seem weird to sit outside and watch the rats every night, but by the end, you can’t imagine doing anything else.
New York Public Library Book for the Teenager New York Public Library Book to Remember PSLA Young Adult Top 40 Nonfiction Titles of the Year
"Engaging...a lively, informative compendium of facts, theories, and musings."-Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
Behold the rat, dirty and disgusting! Robert Sullivan turns the lowly rat into the star of this most perversely intriguing, remarkable, and unexpectedly elegant New York Times bestseller.
Love them or loathe them, rats are here to stay-they are city dwellers as much as (or more than) we are, surviving on the effluvia of our society. In Rats, the critically acclaimed bestseller,…
When Sir Terry passed away in 2015, I was devastated. I
met him once at a book signing in Denver. The only person I’ve ever seen live
that got more laughs per minute while on stage was George Carlin. Sir Terry was
this beautiful, mischievous presence.
There were a few of his books that I
hadn’t read that I held off on reading because I wanted to save them. I’ve read
all of the Discworld novels several times, or so I thought. I thought this book was a stand-alone that wasn’t based in the Discworld. When I
realized it was a Discworld novel, I couldn’t put it down. I read it all in one
sitting. It was like receiving a letter from a beloved, long-past uncle.
Every town on Discworld knows the stories about rats and pipers, and Maurice - a streetwise tomcat - leads a band of educated ratty friends (and a stupid kid) on a nice little earner. Piper plus rats equals lots and lots of money.
Until they run across someone playing a different tune.
Now he and his rats must learn a new concept: evil . . .
I am an expert in customer retention and membership growth with 30 years of experience working with businesses across more than 80 industries. As the President of Be Unleavable, Inc., I specialize in helping subscription companies grow their membership and create loyal, dedicated customer bases. I have authored several books on the subject, including the widely-acclaimed Retention Point, which teaches businesses how to foster a group of excited fans who become their best customers and recommend the business to others. My focus is helping businesses foster long-term relationships with their customers rather than having a series of “one-night stands.”
7 Steps to Freedom is a foundational book that reveals the key economic drivers business owners must balance in order to achieve growth.
Although the book primarily promotes a business model using direct mail marketing for customer acquisition, its lessons are just as relevant in today's digital marketing landscape.
The book encourages business leaders to shift their focus from tweaking ad creatives to reduce customer acquisition costs, to redesigning their businesses to increase customer value.
By doing so, they can afford higher customer acquisition costs and grow much faster than by merely lowering that cost.
7 Steps to Freedomstands out as a unique resource that elucidates this crucial concept in an easily digestible manner for business owners. If you're looking to understand the economic drivers that influence your business's growth potential, this book is a must-read.
I like books that aren’t easy to categorize by genre because that’s the kind of book I like to write. Most of my novels are defined as science fiction for marketing purposes and placed on the science fiction shelves of book shops, but they aren’t very typical of science fiction and don’t necessarily always appeal to those looking for a lot of futuristic tech, or tales of galactic empires. In some ways, the things I write about are more typical of the concerns of readers of non-SF ‘mainstream’ (I hate the term, but there it is!) literary fiction, but many such readers will find them too science fictional.
Doris Lessing is one of the genuinely great authors of the 20th century. A true visionary, she moved effortlessly between naturalistic writing and her own unique variety of science fiction/fantasy—the latter written with such conviction that it seems completely real (while her naturalistic writing is so vivid is to seem almost more than real). In this book, a middle-aged woman looks out of her window at a civilization that is rapidly falling apart. As the woman retreats into her own inner world, a strange girl comes to live with her, bringing an animal called Hugo that is somewhere in between a dog and a cat. It’s a spell-binding piece of world-building and a reminder that everything that seems permanent will one day crumble.
In a beleaguered city where rats and roving gangs terrorize the streets, where government has broken down and meaningless violence holds sway, a woman -- middle-aged and middle-class -- is brought a twelve-year-old girl and told that it is her responsibility to raise the child. This book, which the author has called "an attempt at autobiography," is that woman's journal -- a glimpse of a future only slightly more horrendous than our present, and of the forces that alone can save us from total destruction.
I am obsessed with personal development, having attended seminars to walk across hot coals and jump from crazy heights to test my limits, and I have read hundreds of books and watched hundreds of videos on self-improvement. But sometimes the best lessons come in fiction, and kid’s books do this so wonderfully. And they are a lot quicker to read and absorb! They also teach with humour, rhythm, and joy, and can change a child’s life simply by letting them escape into a world of laughter and joy, expanding their imaginations, and letting them absorb the lessons, sometimes without even realising it.
The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley is a book that, well, the first time I read it my mind was blown. This is a self-help book for all humans in a picture book. It takes our thirst to live forever, to always want more, be more, see more, do more, look better, and compares that with the wonderful Riley, who is happy with some fruit and maybe a couple of slugs on Tuesday or Friday.
He likes a little stick that can scratch his back.
He looks like Riley. Why would he want to look like anything else?
This is a beautifully written and illustrated book on being grateful for what we have.
This book says “ages 8 - 12” in small type on the back. That is a horrible lie of marketing. It should say, “mandatory: childlike sense of whimsy.”
The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza by Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris is a graphic novel approximately 300 pages long. It’s about a cosmic crisis on the moon caused by intergalactic rats, led by a three-headed king—although one of the heads is a bit dim. Brace yourself for giants, a moon queen, pirates, an angry Sphinx, robot showdowns, running gags, and an evil computer who just wants to be a part of the narrative.
It was the most delightful book that I bought this year. Read it aloud to someone who’ll appreciate it.
"Ridiculously fun and brilliantly illustrated." -Dav Pilkey, creator of Dog Man and Captain Underpants
As seen on The TODAY Show! New York Times bestselling Mac Barnett and Caldecott Honor award-winning illustrator Shawn Harris turn their massively popular The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza live cartoon into an action-packed and hysterical graphic novel series-perfect for fans of Dav Pilkey, Raina Telgemeier, and Jeff Kinney. A Kids' Indie Next List Pick, an Indie Bestseller, and a Junior Library Guild Selection!
Something terrible is happening in the skies! Rats are eating the MOON!
