Oh Rats! The Story of Rats and People [Hardcover]

Albert Marrin (Author), C. B. Mordan (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

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.

Editorial Reviews

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

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (August 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525477624
• ISBN-13: 978-0525477624
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 10.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #241,284 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Albert Marrin is an award winning author of over 40 books for young adults and young readers and four books of scholarship. These writings were motivated by the fact that as a teacher, first in a junior high school in New York City for nine years and then as professor of history and chairman of the history department at Yeshiva University until he retired to become a full time writer, his paramount interest has always been to make history come alive and accessible for young people.

Winner of the 2008 National Endowment for Humanities Medal for his work, which was presented at the White House, was given "for opening young minds to the glorious pageant of history. His books have made the lessons of the past come alive with rich detail and energy for a new generation."

Dr. Marrin's numerous other awards include the Washington Post Childrens'Book Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, the James Madison Award for Lifetime Achievement, several Horn Book awards by the Boston Globe, consistently appearing on the best book of the year lists of the American Library Association, frequent recognition by Book Lists, and the Western Heritage Award for best juvenile nonfiction book presented at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame among others.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rat a tat tat tat, August 26, 2006

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oh Rats! The Story of Rats and People (Hardcover)

I thought I knew a lot about rats. I did. After having read Robert Sullivan's book for adults, "Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants", I found myself under the distinct impression that Sullivan had told me everything about rats that there was to know. Imagine my shock then when, upon picking up Albert Marrin's, "Oh, Rats!: The Story of Rats and People", I discovered fact after fact after fact that I didn't know at all. Did you know that there was once a prehistoric rat that was seven feet long 17 million years ago? Or that a rat can collapse its skeleton so as to fit into tight places? Marrin doesn't just look at rats. He examines their bad and good (they have some) qualities in such a way that his book comes across as the foremost children's literature authority on the critters proper. Stir in C.B. Mordan's woodcut-like illustrations and you have yourself one heckuva book. One that will have even its adult readers alternately aghast and entranced.

Rats. You know 'em. You hate 'em. But no matter what your thoughts on these large rodentia, you've never seen them like this. In scintillating detail, Albert Marrin tracks the rat/human progress and how one species has helped or hurt (usually hurt) the other over the course of our evolution. From their ancestors to how they've killed us with plague, eaten our food, or been eaten by us (yum!) we see rats in every form and face. We view them as caring family members and fast breeders. Anything and everything a kid may ever want to know about rats is here, and its hard to look away from what Marrin is displaying before our eyes (no matter how much you may want to).

As to their intelligence, Marrin spares no detail. Some rats have learned to "fish" by dangling their worm-like tails in the water and then pouncing on the interested fishies. Time after time Marrin was surprising me with what he knew. Listen to this: "Sometimes able-bodied rats lead blind rats. They do this by allowing the blind rat to hold on to the tail of another or by holding one end of a stick in its mouth". I was happy to see that in the course of Marrin's rat history he included some information on lab rat testing. It's an evenhanded account, offering both sides of the debate and giving kids the chance to decide whether or not they think it's useful or uselessly cruel.

The design of the book is incredibly impressive as well. First of all, you have C.B. Mordan's pictures dotting every page, so well done there. Then, at the same time, the pages are broken up in various boxes. The only colors in this book are black, white, and a deep scarlet. Scarlet boxes move from page to page offering sidenotes of equal or surpassing interest to the text itself. Sometimes the book will open up onto a full-page picture of rats balancing on telephone wires or led by a Pied Piper to their doom. And on occasion Marrin seems to run out of strictly rat-related factoids so he may, for example, complement a passage on rat-eating with a list of other peculiar foods people will eat. You'll find "blue jay stomachs" and "flies in honey sauce" amongst others.

I kept marking the interesting passages so that I'd remember them when I wrote this review. Then, when it came time to review this book, I found myself overwhelmed by the number of interesting facts I'd marked. A single pair of rats can have 359 million descendants in three years! Isn't that wild? Or that a "rat king" is when a bunch of rats are stuck together by their tails. Or that rats lived with cavemen. It's true! And they cripple elephants in zoos (I'll spare you how). Or that, "the U.S. Department of Agriculture sets standards for the amount of rodent hairs and feces allowed in food such as peanut butter". I feel badly not telling you about every single interesting passage I marked up, but you may as well read the book as listen to me. Let's just say there were at least ten other passages marked in my copy of "Oh, Rats!" that I'm bitterly regretting not recounting them here.

The Bibliography in the back was especially interesting. Not only was there a proper listing of all rat-related nonfiction (both for children and adults) but also a list of suggested reading. Here you will find books on rat care, rats in literature, classic children's books like "Charlotte's Web" that contain rats, and a "More Books To Enjoy" section that contains rat characters of every stripe. From "Gregor the Overlander" to "Redwall", the best-known rats are here for kids to read up on. An excellent idea for a Bibliography all around. With all this citing from a factual bonanza it seems odd that Marrin would relate that the "Ring Around the Rosy" poem is definitely about the plague. There is no hard and fast evidence to support this and many claim to have debunked the theory in the past. It's a fun idea, but no one has ever come up with a clear cut Middle English recounting of the poem. Marrin does not mention this.

Still, for the most part, "Oh, Rats!" is just purely factual fun. A non-fiction title that kids can enjoy, parents can enjoy, and anyone who's ever wondered about rodentia proper can appreciate. Even people like myself who thought they knew all there was to know about the nasty critters will find themselves time and time again shocked and delighted by all the facts Marrin was able to relate. Kid-friendly, very pleasant on the eye, and just a delight through and through. A top notch presentation from a top notch author/illustrator team.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Oh Rats! At least the illustrations are good. . ., October 27, 2006

By 

L. Peirce-Dougherty (Probably Arizona) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oh Rats! The Story of Rats and People (Hardcover)

Although the illustrations are quite nice, the text is extremely anecdotal and should not be taken seriously. Rat shows are not referred to as "Pageants for Pretty Rats" - that phrase is actually part of the title of a Wall Street Journal article discussing domestic rodents (not listed in the 'bibliography' BTW). The author also loosely refers to multiple species as 'rats' which is very confusing. Norway rats, black rats, Gambian rats, and kiore are all lumped together for most of the book, even though the animals are very different.

The author also missed many wonderful opportunities. For example, on page 20, he discusses rats as pests in the White House, and Teddy Roosevelt leading rat hunts in the dining room. However, a true scholar of rats would have known that Teddy Roosevelt and his children actually kept multiple pet rats, and a black and white hooded rat named 'Jonathan' was a particular favourite - in the White House dining room.

Not really approprite for kids who need to learn real information about rodents, not tall tales disgused as facts. But the illustrations will satisfy any adult rat-o-phile!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating reading., October 7, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oh Rats! The Story of Rats and People (Hardcover)

C.B. Mordan's dark woodcuts are perfect to accompany OH RATS! THE STORY OF RATS AND PEOPLE. Here science, history and natural history blend to provide a spirited, lovely account of rats and their interactions with humans. Kids in grades 3-5 will find this fascinating reading.