The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Fiction / Pratchett, Terry	4-week checkout	Due 05-08-2024
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Fiction / Pratchett, Terry	4-week checkout	Due 05-21-2024

A talking cat, intelligent rats, and a strange boy cooperate in a Pied Piper scam until they try to con the wrong town and are confronted by a deadly evil rat king.

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A delightful adventure submitted by cherylo on July 10, 2011, 9:35am Somehow this book was not the easiest read-aloud, but still worth the occasional tongue-twisting sentence to read to my kids. There are parts that may be scary for younger readers, n which the protagonists are trapped with mind-controlled rats in an underground space, so gauge the comfort level of readers carefully.

my beloved diskworld submitted by ferdoble on August 11, 2011, 3:48pm To describe Terry Pratchett’s books is a difficult thing to do. The disc world series is in a word fantastic. Terry Pratchett, would seem to use the disk world, to take any theme, or know story and then twist it in his own very humorous way. These are not always laugh out loud funny (sometimes they are), bur rather the sort of funny that just sort of lifts your spirits a little bit.

I will say that in some cases there isn’t always a really strong story, sometimes its just his characters moving through one of those twisted themes. I like them all, you may want to start with the Most Von Lipwig story line (“Going Postal” and then “making money”) as at least the first one has a really great story line.

I love to pepper my reading queue with these books to keep all those books that take themselves seriously fresh and interesting.

I recommend reading them ALL.

OR listening to them. The two main narrators of Terry Pratchett’s books are Stephen Briggs & Nigel Planer and they take Terry Pratchett’s phenomenal writing to a whole new level.

Pratchett tackles philosophy. submitted by eknapp on November 9, 2011, 3:48pm This is a fantasy take on Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of NIMH. It's funnier and not as dark. Pratchett's intelligent rat-clan works with a smart cat (the eponymous Maurice) and a slow human musician, running a Pied Piper grift on a series of towns.

It's fascinating to watch all these newly-intelligent creatures begin to ask themselves great philosophical questions: where did we come from? why are we here? what happens to us after we die? is there a Great Rat Under the Ground? Really great stuff.

Discworld for children submitted by Jen Chapin-Smith on August 11, 2012, 7:46pm Although Sir Terry Pratchett wrote this book for children, some readers may find it disturbing, especially those who dislike rats or who dislike cruelty to animals. The story follows a cat and several rodents who gained the ability to speak by accidentally coming into contact with the magical toxic waste that the wizards of Unseen University failed to dispose of properly. However, readers who love the Discworld series, will love this continuation of the series, if the part about animals does not bother them too much.

discworld submitted by unknown on August 10, 2013, 10:44pm Terry Pratchett's Discworld series has topped British bestseller lists for years and has a sizable fanbase in the United States as well. Now with "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" Pratchett expands Discworld from adult fantasy to young adult fantasy as well.

A boy, a cat, and a troupe of rats arrive at the town of Bad Blintz. But while Keith is normal, feline Maurice and his "educated rodents" are not -- they speak, think, and are self-aware (they ate wizards' garbage). And they have a nice racket going, where the rats pretend to infest a town (they gnaw things and "widdle" on the flour), and Keith poses as a piper to lead them away. But something is wrong with Bad Blintz -- there are no native rats, yet the rat-catchers claim that there's an outright plague of them, and are producing rat-tails to prove it. (They bear a remarkable resemblance to shoelaces)

With the help of a too-imaginative-for-her-own good girl, Malicia, Keith and Maurice begin to investigate why all the rats are gone, and what the rat-catchers are up to. But when they discover the conspiracy, Maurice starts hearing the voice of something down in the sewers -- something evil, something powerful, something that can command hundreds of rats...

So help me, I'm an idiot where funny titles are concerned, and "Amazing Maurice" is further proof that they often c. Much as he gave a new spin to MacBeth in "Wyrd Sisters," here he gives a new spin to the "Pied Piper" legend, with some interesting philosophy and his trademarked humor as well. Does the idea of talking animals and preteens make you cringe? Don't -- Pratchett handles it with rare style.

There's plenty of humor in this book, from the names of the rats (Dangerous Beans, Additives, Big Savings, Toxie) to Sardines, the tap-dancing rat with a hat to the incident with the laxatives. His dialogue is still brilliant. ("Think of my dear wife and my four lovely children who'll be without their daddy!" "You're not married. You don't have any children!" "I might want some day!")

But Pratchett doesn't forget the deeper currents either -- the sense of evil he builds up is very genuine, and Spider is one of the most unique fantasy villains he's created. Also good is the attitude of the Changed rats: they cherish their greater intelligence, fear their instincts, and gradually we see them overcome some of those ratty instincts (rather than eating one of their dead, they bury him like humans do).

Keith is a nice character, seeming dim but surprisingly intelligent; Malicia is a pain in the butt, and only seems to gain any brains near the end. Maurice is the character that Pratchett does best -- he seems, initially, to have no good characteristis, but he's a good person underneath. (With a dirty little secret involving one of the rats) The Educated Rodents are all given individual personalities that Pratchett juggles very well. And Dangerous Beans, a little blind rat, has one of the best scenes in which he confronts the mysterious Spider.

"The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" isn't actually that different from Pratchett's adult fantasies, and older fans of that series will enjoy this one just as much as the kids. Witty, thought-provoking, entertaining.

fun story, great reader for audiobook submitted by camelsamba on June 30, 2017, 7:19pm We listened to the audiobook download (using OverDrive through the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services - see the "ebooks and eaudio" sidebar in the library catalog) on a recent road trip. It was enjoyed by all (ages 14-77) - although In my opinion, the Rat King storyline dragged this down from 4 stars to 3 stars. The reader (Stephen Briggs) is wonderful - as far as I can tell, he reads all the Pratchett audiobooks (at least the teen ones).

While this is part of the Discworld series, you don't need to have read any other Terry Pratchett books in order to enjoy this. It stands alone as far as I can tell.

Great book, but scary for kids submitted by Juno Ryan on July 1, 2017, 7:09pm I love this book, but although it seems like a child friendly Pratchett novel, some parts of this book would be very scary for kids, including starving animals and people, death,and animal cruelty. I would however recommend this book to older kids and adults.

Don't Let the Talking Animals Fool You - It's an Excellent Book for All Ages! submitted by mr413 on July 19, 2022, 9:52pm I'm a huge fan of Terry Pratchett and the Discworld series, but I was a little hesitant to pick this one up because it felt like it might be geared towards a slightly younger audience - luckily for me, I decided to give it a chance; because it's actually become one of my favorite Terry Pratchett books to date!

Like every Discworld book, it manages to take well-worn tropes (talking animals, pied-pipers, mystery novels, etc.) and give them new life by flipping them in new, unexpected ways. Pratchett moves between irony and sincerity with ease, and it gives the story a really nice sense of depth while still maintaining that classic Pratchett humor.

The real heart of the book, though, are the characters that Pratchett brings to life - Maurice is as fascinating and complex as any human protagonist, and the rats all have distinct, unique personalities that make it easy to get invested in their individual stories. I'll admit, there was a certain scene in this book that brought me to near tears, and I'm not one to usually cry at books, but Pratchett crafts such compelling characters - Maurice in particular stole the show for me - that you can't help but get strung along by the narrative. Pratchett also struck an excellent balance between staying true to the instincts and animal nature of Maurice and the rats without it getting too trite or cliché, resulting in one of the best 'talking animal' type books I've read!

Overall, I'd describe this book as the Pied Piper crossed with Wee Free Men and Watership Down, and the end result is a gripping, hilarious, touching book that I highly recommend!