DescriptionMaurice, an amazing cat who has survived four years on the toughest streets in the whole of the Discworld, reckons that rats are dumb - clever, okay, but dumb. Maurice, however, is smart, smart enough to recognize that there's a new kind of rat around: rats who have been eating wizards' rubbish and can now talk. Smart enough to get a pretty amazing idea when he spots a stupid-looking kid playing the flute... Now Maurice has his very own "plague of rats" and his own Pied Piper. And his money-bags are getting fuller and fuller. Until the group reaches the far-flung village of Bad Blintz.
DescriptionIn the small coastal city of Oran, Algeria, rats begin rising up from the filth, only to die as bloody heaps in the streets. Shortly after, an outbreak of the bubonic plague erupts and envelops the human population. Albert Camus' The Plague is a brilliant and haunting rendering of human perseverance and futility in the face of a relentless terror born of nature.
DescriptionRed Pizzas for a Blue Count: My troublemaker cousin was trapped in Transratania! And before I could even squeak, my sister, Thea, dragged me along on her rescue mission. Little did we know that Transratania is the land of vampire bats! Holey che…
DescriptionThe Wind in the Willows is a book for those "who keep the spirit of youth alive in them; of life, sunshine, running water, woodlands, dusty roads, winter firesides." So wrote Kenneth Grahame of his timeless tale of Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad, in their lyrical world of gurgling rivers and whispering reeds, a world that is both beautiful and benevolently ordered. But it is also a world threatened by dark forces: "the Terror of the Wild Wood" with its "wicked little faces" and "glances of malice and hatred", and defended by the mysterious Piper at the Gates of Dawn. In the end, Grahame triumphantly succeeds in conveying his most precious theme: the miracle of loyalty and friendship.
DescriptionGregor is summoned back to the Underland by the terms of a second prophecy. Spies have reported the sighting of a Rat King, a character who has been legendary since the Middle Ages. Recognizable by its tremendous size and snow-white coat, the Rat King is destined to bring a World War to the Underland. Gregor eventually comes face to face with the Rat King, and to his surprise, he finds he is unable to kill this creature. His heart tells him he's making the right decision. Will it be a decision he lives to regret?
DescriptionRats. They're everywhere: in the breadbins, dancing across tabletops, stealing pies from under the cooks' noses. So what does every town need? A good Piper to lure them away. That's where Maurice comes in. But he's only a cat (even if one that talks), so although he has the ideas, he needs rats and someone to play the pipe. Who better than the kid to play the pipe? And Dangerous Beans. And Peaches. And Hamnpork (who doesn't really like what's been happening since The Change, all a rat leader really needs is to be big and stroppy, thinking is just not his thing). And Darktan. And Sardines. And all the others in the Clan. Then they arrive in Bad Blintz, which is suffering from a plague of rats, and find there are NO rats anywhere (though the two resident rat catchers seem to have plenty of tails to show, at 50 pence per tail). Someone else has had ideas, and Maurice is not pleased.
