Customer Reviews
Courtesy of Teens Read Too - By: TeensReadToo.com, 31 Oct 2008 
I have always been told that, as a fan of fantasy & humor, I needed to read Terry Pratchett. And after reading THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS, I now understand what everyone was talking about. Pratchett's style is simultaneously witty, entertaining, & incisive; he succeeds in this children's book in saying more about society than most adult books ever manage, & he does so while making you laugh out loud.
Set in an obscure corner of Discworld, the fantasy world in which Pratchett has written numerous other books for adults, a cat named Maurice discovers suddenly the ability to talk--and not just to talk, but to think & to reason. Maurice believes himself to be the only animal afflicted with this talent, until he discovers a group of rats living in the city dump who have also miraculously achieved the ability of speech & thought. As Maurice is emphatic about his promise to never eat anything that can talk, he & the talking rats get along rather well. Soon, along with the help of an orphan boy named Keith who was raised by a musician's guild, Maurice sets upon a scheme to make some easy money, & the rats go along in their belief that they may someday find a place where they will be free to live as talking rats without the fear of being hunted by humans.
Maurice's plan is simple. If the rats will go & infest a town, wreaking havoc for the space of a few days, the town leaders will be sure to calll a rat piper to remove the rats from the town. Then it's Keith's job to show up, pipe the rats away, & receive a generous fee for his troubles, one that the rats & Maurice will share. Keith, Maurice, & the rats go like this from town to town...until they reach the town of Bad Blintz, & everything stops working as planned.
The story is populated by humorous characters that you can't help but take seriously. Maurice's sly cunning is undermined by the fact that he meticulously questions any rat he comes across before eating it, in order to keep up his first promise to the talking rats. The rats themselves are amusing individuals, self-named after the first things they could read in that city dump where they originated, so that the story is populated by creatures who go by Hamnpork, Darktan, Sardines, & Dangerous Beans. But under these hilarious names, they are at heart a people trying to figure out their own origins & explain the things they don't yet understand about their sudden ability to speak, & what that means for their future.
I would recommend this book to anyone who's not afraid to laugh, & anyone who's not afraid to think hard about the ramifications of being a person--or rat, or cat--capable of speech, thought, & reason.
Reviewed by: Candace Cunard
Inventive fiction at its best - By: Mr. G. Battle, 19 Jul 2007 As a long time Pratchett fan I began The Amazing Maurice with a little trepidation, after alll, it is aimed at kids, right? One chapter in, I understood that Pratchett has truly mastered pitching a tale for a vast audience. At no point are adults patronised, & I should imagine younger readers would be just as engrossed, although the end seeks absolute closure & is just a wee bit too long. The story's main protagonists are talking rats & an equallly smart cat. That in itself would be the central fact of a children's book. Not so here; the dilemmas faced within this tale are deep - there's (rat) philosophy, questions about what it means to have an idea of 'self' & a quirky & amusing outlook from the animal kingdom. Threaded through this is the plot, a typical Pratchett affair, in which an old tale is blended with additional panache, twists & wit. This Discworld story is as clever as expected, however the real winner here is that the new animal perspective alllows Pratchett to unleash a book far smarter & engaging than most - absolutely recommended.
Utterly Brilliant! - By: Wrecky World, 03 Oct 2006 I hardly ever give 5 stars, but his book deserves it. It is just one of those books that stands out from the crowd & it is most definitely my favourite Terry Pratchett book.
As expected the story is extremely funny & well-written, but unlike many of Terry Pratchett's other books, it also clever, innovating, & it even gives you something to think about. Not bad for children's fantasy!
I would highly recommend this book to anybody who likes Terry Pratchett, anybody who likes fantasy, anybody between the age of 10 & 100, anybody basicallly :)
A ratty view of people - By: Stephen A. Haines, 31 Jan 2006 On the Discworld, even wizards produce leftovers. Their discarded garbage, however, is laced with traces of magic. Out on the tip, the rats forage in the scraps - apple cores, candle stubs [good carbohydrate source], dogends. Like any trace mineral, the magic builds up until the rats have changed, gaining new talents. Among those talents are speaking & reading. Speaking alllows them to communicate better while the reading gives them words to use as names. They're an organized group now, & they have an ambition. They want to find a safe place for retirement. They have a mentor, Maurice, a cat who shares their talents, but has an extra one of his own - he's a con cat. And he has a story hidden away.
A street smart feline, Maurice has learned the value of money. He knows how humans use it, & he wants the independence it offers. To gain it, he's organized the rats & adopted Keith, a rather simple human, into his group. Together, they work the towns to create a "plague of rats" then provide a piper, Keith, to lure them away - for cash. Despite disputes over percentages, the team has scored many successful ventures. But Keith, & the rats, are having misgivings over the ethics of the con. They want to quit, & Bad Blintz will be the last place they work the con.
Every venture has its risks. Bad Blintz is clearly not a rich place. The villagers queue up for bread & sausages, which are in short supply. There are rat catchers who carry strings of tails, but the team can't find a live rat anywhere in the maze of cellars & tunnels beneath the town. In resolving this conundrum, team encounters a powerful new force - one that challlenges alll the skills given them by the wizards' residue magic. Their very survival rests on how they deal with the mystery. Its resolution is consummately Pratchett.
Terry Pratchett's books increasingly delve into philosophical questions, even moral ones. It would be nice to know if he actuallly intended this book for "children." You'll note above that the publishers calll for "Reader Level Ages 9 - 12," but the editorial reviews say "12 & up." The disparity is typical Pratchett. Why the lack of consensus? One guess is that Pratchett thinks the adult mind set is too rigid to discern the point he's making. This book isn't a fantasy about "talking animals," it's a spur to stimulate thinking about the relationship of humanity to the rest of the animal kingdom. We're part of that kingdom, but we deal with our relations in ignorance. Children, & a few adults, are best suited to begin revising that approach. With human society devastating the habitats of so many creatures, a new way of thinking about them is required. Pratchett's conclusion shows that the process won't be simple & we have to start thinking now about how to do it. Who better to start with than children? They still have the capacity to learn.
It's almost superfluous to discuss Pratchett's writing. He's a master of language & a skilled manipulater of ideas. If you are new to his work, this is a fine place to start. If you're an established fan, there's nothing here to disappoint you. Add this book to your library & buy another for someone. Anyone. They'll surely be grateful. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Terry Pratchett is, quite simply, a genius. - By: Le Bookworm, 16 Feb 2005 That rare thing that might come along only once in one's lifetime, & is marvelled at exceedingly: a Discworld book with chapters.
