The Truth About Rats, Rules, & Seventh Grade - Hardcover

Zinnen, Linda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060287993 ISBN 13: 9780060287993

Publisher: HarperColl, 2001

Synopsis

Larch Waysorta lives by The Rules:

1. Honor your mother.
2. Ace out school.
3. Be kind to small dogs and children.

What a bunch of stupid, stupid rules.

The Rules don't tell you what to do when your best friend is falling in love with a drop-dead gorgeous jerk. Or when your trailer turns into a winter home for every rat in Pottsville, Ohio. Or when you find out The Truth about the night your father died.

Do you sometimes have to break The Rules if you want to handle The Truth?

About this title

About the Author

Linda Zinnen is the author of The Truth About Rats, Rules, & Seventh Grade, published by HarperCollins, which won the Parents' Choice Gold Medal. Her second book, Holding at Third, was published in 2003. Ms. Zinnen and her family used to live in Zanesville, Ohio. They now live in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Reviews

Gr 4-7-Larch Waysorta lives with her mother in a trailer in Pottsville, OH. She is a good student who follows the rules set by the adults around her until a startling discovery turns her orderly world upside down. While interviewing the school custodian for a class assignment, the seventh grader inadvertently learns the shocking truth about her father's death nine years before. She has always known that he died in a car crash, but the newfound knowledge that her mother, who never talks about the accident or her late husband, was the driver ignites the girl's feelings of loss and anger. Sideline plots include the Waysortas' rat-infested trailer, a mangy rat-catching dog, and a smitten best friend. Larch's engaging first-person narrative, sense of humor, and propensity for list-making result in a quick read. Unfortunately, the exaggerated, unrelenting rat scenes are more horrific than comical. And even though the pooch turns out to be a hero of sorts, he is depicted as menacing and unfriendly throughout. Larch misjudges him in the same way she misjudges her own mother, though by the novel's end, she is ready to forgive them both. The characters on the whole are not sufficiently developed, and the plot meanders. Though the novel does have some redeeming qualities, it is not a first purchase.-Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

The frank, often humorous narrative of 11-year-old Larch Waysorta is this fast-paced first novel's greatest strength. All is well between Larch and her chain-smoking, junk-food addicted and taciturn single mother--as long as they both adhere to their unspoken list of household rules, which basically forbids any discussion of her father or his death. Then one day her teacher assigns a project to compile a Who's Who of Pottsville, Ohio, whereby each student must interview a subject. Larch's subject is the school janitor, Charles Prouty, who introduces Larch to a rat-killer dog and reveals a fact about her father's death that sends her reeling. A scene between Larch, her mom and a persistent rat, which causes Larch to lure the dog into her trailer, will likely have readers' skin crawling. The author leaves a few loose ends, such as Larch and Charles Prouty barely speaking after their exchange and the relative lack of consequences when Larch fails to complete her biography. And while Larch's love-hate relationship with the dog proves an effective device to portray her tendency to obscure and dodge the truth, the rat-killer never emerges as a credible dog character. Still, the author handily balances serious and comic moments. Ages 8-12.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 5-7. Larch Waysorta does well in school, not just because she's smart but also because she's driven. She wants to escape her decrepit school, her go-nowhere town, and the moldy trailer where she lives with her mom, who does little other than smoke and sleep. Consequently, the rules Larch makes for herself are tough, and her confusion is understandable when they begin to erode. For instance, she's determined not to talk about her dad--until she discovers that her mother was driving the car in which he was killed; she refuses to become emotionally attached--until the stray dog that chases rats from under the trailer curls up in her bed. Zinnen's characters are as multifaceted as Larch's life: the obnoxious boy in class turns out to be an avid reader, and rigid Larch becomes forgiving and compassionate. Humor balances tragic circumstances. The mayhem that results when Larch and her friend release the animals in the city pound will have readers laughing out loud. The seventh-grader's astute, mixed-up perspective rings true, and her words are an uncommon blend of thoughtfulness, wisdom, and fun. Ellen Mandel
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperColl
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060287993
• ISBN 13: 9780060287993
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160