Author: Lynne Jonell
Rating: 
Reading Level: 4th - 6th grade
Pages: 352Publisher: Henry Holt
Edition: Hardcover, 2007
It's impressive how Jonell manages to inform the readers of all characters' personalities, feelings, and actions without ever straying away from Emmy's perspective: readers only know what she sees, hears, and thinks. The outlandish circumstances with all the super(magical?)-powers of the rodents are accompanied by a gentle tale of friendship, longing for parental love, and the essence of stable families. I mentally applauded the several jabs at the absurdity of the over-scheduling of our children.
The illustration with the flip-book margin of Rat falling and Emmy catching him ceases being a gimmick when it visually sums up the spirit of the story: "Don't worry. We're friends. I will catch you if you fall."
This sounds really fun. Thanks for the rec!
ReplyDeleteSomeone compares this to a Dahl story and I asked my 3rd grade daughter if she feels that way. She disagreed, saying that there is a deliberate "mystery and problem solving" going on (actually, there are more than one mystery in the story) which makes it different from stories by Roald Dahl. She couldn't put it down, finishing it in 2 days!
ReplyDeleteReading that your daughter couldn't put it down is the best review of all. Thanks for passing that on!
ReplyDelete