Customer Reviews

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lynne has created an instant classic; it reminds me of my favorite stories like Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet and Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang. Her story has memorable characters that you'll love and enjoy right from the start and a storyline that combines mystery, magic, real life problems and wonderful, droll humor. It's delightful to watch Emmy break out of her "too goodness" to solve the mystery and to save her family. Not to mention saving not just herself but all of her newly made friends. It's gripping, its a bit scary, its funny and comforting. It is a satisfying read from beginning to end that I think kids and adults both would enjoy.

I struggled with what to do with this book.

On the one hand, this was a book I devoured. I read it from start to finish -- I think I skipped a meal -- and was grinning the entire time.

What a fun story. Emmy, completely unnoticed by her classmates, ignored by her parents, mistreated by the nanny left in her charge, wants only her old life back: before her parents came into money. Nothing seems to have gone right. Her parents are now obsessed with long vacations and long hours, her classmates have forgotten her, and the class pet rat keeps talking to her. Yes, the rat talks. But only Emmy can hear him. All of these things bother Emmy, and in part because she has no clue why any of them have happened at all. But the answers are coming. And there's no predicting, at least at the beginning, as to what those answers are.

And therein lies the part of the book that I struggle with. Without going into details (risking spoilers), I will say simply this: rodents are incredibly powerful creatures. Rats, mice, gerbils, ferrets, you name it. Used wisely, they allow for so much. As plot devices go, I thought it was fun. Especially the professor who gets too close to one of his experiments and therefor falls asleep at the most inopportune moments. I suspect he would be able to solve the issue, except that every time he gets close....out like a light.

But the fun, quirky gimmick struggles. While tt has you smiling every time a new rodent is introduced -- this one makes people sleepy, this one makes them grow up faster, this one enables you to speak to animals -- something about it just doesn't seem to fit. The gimmick exists amid a conflict that is too real, and too sinister. They story immistakeably takes place in the real world, and Emmy's struggles with her Nanny's plans for her are, if anything, too well written. The conflict between Emmy and her Nanny would be more at home in a true crime drama than anywhere else. And so it doesn't fit well with the quirky gimmicks, and in reading it I was plagued with a disconnectedness that I could never quite reconcile.

If anything, the villian in the book needed to be one of the rodents. When we open a book like this, we leave the real world behind for a few hours, and enter into the world contained within those pages. And the conflict needed to involve the new world we get to see, not the old world we leave behind.

Yet, all of that aside, the simple truth is that "Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat" is a well written, enjoyable read. I liked this book. I enjoyed it, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys children's literature, or anyone who has a pet rodent. Because the truth is that I'm probably just being too nitpicky, and am failing to sit back and enjoy the show, as they say.

I wonder if there's a breed of mouse out there that could fix that for me...

A diabolical nanny, a clever thoughtful little girl and a talking rat face off in this deliciously witty and intelligent story. Emmy is an exceedingly well-behaved girl who enjoyed life with her parents and had many friends before an inheritance from a great uncle brings an end to cozy family interactions and Emmy and her parents move to her Great-Uncle's mansion. Now Emmy attends a new school, her parents are always off traveling and Emmy is supervised by Miss Barmy, a very unpleasant and strange nanny who is constantly tearing down her self- esteem and giving her mysterious medicines, one turned her face orange. Her classmates and teacher hardly notice her, "Emma? Emmaline Addison?" Mr. Herbifore gazed out over the heads of his students. Emmy stood up. "No, I don't see her," he said into the phone. "Emmy walked forward and stood by the teacher's desk. What did she have to do, she wondered, bewildered. Throw firecrackers under his chair? Hang from the ceiling and make like a monkey? She tugged at the teacher's sleeve and spoke loudly in his ear. "Here I am, Mr. Herbifore." The teacher stared at her doubtfully. Oh? Are you sure?" One day, the classroom rat tells her that she is too nice, "A little meanness is good for the soul. I highly recommend it." At the end of an entertaining repartee that includes Rat's response to Emmy's surprised comment, "Rodents play soccer?" "Of course they play soccer, he snapped. What do you think they do for fun? Run about, frightening elephants? Scavenge in churches for crumbs? Really, your ignorance is appalling." Rat pleads with Emmy to release him from his cage and when she does this engaging story explodes with adventure, suspense, and humor.

We've had a difficult time finding books to read as a family that will please both my 9 year old daughter, who loves books like Nancy Drew mysteries,"A Little Princess" and Boxcar children stories, as well as my 6 year old son who prefers non-fiction. But all of us have thoroughly enjoyed reading Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat. The characters are endearing, humorous, and real. The story is fresh, imaginative, suited for both boys and girls, suspenseful, adventurous, and sometimes laugh out loud funny. They both begged for more chapters each evening and my daughter snuck off with it one day and read for hours without a pause. Reading it with my kids was my second reading and I enjoyed it the second time just as much as the first, and am very pleased to find that there is a sequel, which the kids have already requested for another family book. I wish Pixar would pick it up and make a movie because we would LOVE to see Rat on the big screen - what a great character. A instant favorite here.

We just finished reading Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat tonight. What a delightful ride it has been! Along with our twin 8 yo girls, my husband and I have have thoroughly devoured this book together as a bedtime read-aloud. Our girls would literally plead, " Just read one more chapter, pleeeeeeeeeeease!" There is action, intrigue, suspense (Lynne Jonell is a master of the end-of-the-chapter cliff hanger), iconic evil, cute critters, tests of friendship, family relationship stresses, sports, science (of sorts), uproarious humor, and warm-hearted tender moments. This story kept us all guessing. Just when we thought we knew where we were going next, the story took a turn we never saw coming. The language was just a bit above our girls at times which we like (a great vocabulary builder), but they were able to follow along without trouble. It is a LONG book, but it's worth the time. Our girls chose this book as their prize from the library summer reading program when we were only about half-way through the book. We can't wait to own it for ourselves! OH, and the flip book down the side of the pages is a lot of fun too.

My daughter is not an avid reader. From an early age, I have showered her in print material, but alas, somehow I have managed to drive her from the safe haven of the written word to the cold lap of mathematics. This situation often perplexes me, since I spend my days watering down great works of literature to classrooms largely comprised of vapid adolescents.

So when the time came to work on the dreaded 3rd grade book report, I was apprehensive that I would have to sit on top of her and force-feed a chapter book to an unwilling party. That was not the case. She chewed through several chapters a night, with little goading, and actually comprehended a great deal of what she had read. And when the time came to complete the report, my little darling seemed to truly enjoy clarifying the details of the story. Adults might be a little irritated by some of the loose ends, but kids really don't mind. The dialogue is strong, the characters are round, and the magic is there. That's all they really need to enjoy a story.

Like other kids her age (eleven), Emmaline "Emmy" Augusta Addison "named after two great-aunts" sometimes feels invisible. Her formerly loving, attentive parents seem to have taken a turn for the selfish since inheriting the fortune (and thirty-three room house) of a distant uncle. They can no longer be bothered with tending to their daughter, and are almost constantly absent, embarking on a series of increasingly prevalent and lengthy trips. Upon their return, they seem like their old selves again - briefly - before taking on personality characteristics entirely opposite of their true selves. Emmy, as a result, is primarily parented by an inconsiderate, controlling nanny with a penchant for using odd remedies for curing what (the nanny believes) ails the girl. Her classmates seem almost unaware of her existence. Finally, one day when she is alone in her school classroom, a (p 25) "small, arrogant, impossible creature," gives her what for after witnessing her sometimes-spineless behavior. In spite of his imperiousness, she unlatches his cage and releases him to fend for himself. And so starts their adventure.

Along with both human and rodent friends, Emmy and Rat endeavor to foil an evil plan masterminded by her nanny, Miss Barmy, having lots of fun and fright along the way. Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, filled with gnawing, nibbling, funny, furry characters (as well as a few humans), is a magical, marvelous story about a good girl and a ridiculous (but lovable) Rat. The novel includes a flipbook along the rhs of Rat falling from a tree. Also good, The Tale of Desperaux by Kate Decamillo and Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins.

I like the illustration of a rat falling from a height - it's a flipbook movie. The book is a help to the rat species. I find it very exciting.

I like the illustration of a rat falling from a height - it's a flipbook movie. The book is a help to the rat species. I find it very exciting.

I like the illustration of a rat falling from a height - it's a flipbook movie. The book is a help to the rat species. I find it very exciting.