The Red-Hot Rattoons - Hardcover

Winthrop, Elizabeth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805072292 ISBN 13: 9780805072297

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 2003

Synopsis

A rollicking adventure about five tap-dancing country rats who come to the Big City to seek fame, with drawings by Betsy Lewin

Armed with a boom box, a stage wardrobe, and a tube of city maps, five tap-dancing country rats, who call themselves the Rattoons, set off to seek their fame in Rat Hollow-the rat community that pulses with a life all its own beneath the streets of New York City.

But when Rat Hollow turns its back on them, the Rattoons break the law and take their act aboveground to dance for humans in front of the Metropolitan Museum, only to find that danger assails them from every direction. So the Rattoons turn to Oliver String Bean Bailey, the legendary human impresario who knows rat speak. Will he help them achieve their dancing dream?

A rollicking fun-filled adventure, The Red-Hot Rattoons tells the story of a band of lovable characters whose loyalty to one another proves more important than fame and glory.

About this title

About the Author

Elizabeth Winthrop is the author of more than fifty books for readers of all ages, including The Castle in the Attic, which sold over two million copies, and its sequel The Battle for the Castle. Her picture books include Dumpy La Rue, also illustrated by Betsy Lewin, and Halloween Hats, with pictures by Sue Truesdell. The Red-Hot Rattoons is Ms. Winthrop's first middle-grade fantasy novel since The Battle for the Castle.

Betsy Lewin was the recipient of the 2001 Caldecott Honor for her art in Doreen Cronin's Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

Grade 4-6-The rats of NIMH have nothing on Benny, Fletcher, Ella, Woody, and Monk, five young jazz- and tap-dancing rats who set out for the fabled Big City in hopes of seeing their names in lights. Making the Big Time turns out to be no walk in the park-well, actually, it does, as the Rattoons escape a misguided and near-fatal debut on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art by diving into Central Park's shrubbery. Escaping hawks, dogs, poison, and other hazards, the troupe then makes its way to Rat Hollow, a bustling subterranean burg whose residents can chow down on tasty garbage provided at the "ratomat" between visits to the Performing Rats Library. Ultimately, the Rattoons ascend to the massively grandiloquent "Crystal" (known to humans as Radio City Music Hall), where an impromptu performance during the Holiday Hullabaloo earns the quintet not only a standing "O" from the stunned audience but a marquee billing with their names in four-foot letters to boot. Lewin's sketches of tiny, high-stepping rats add stylish notes at each chapter's head, and Rat Hollow, which mirrors the thinly disguised New York aboveground, provides a side-splitting backdrop to this engaging tale of life on (and beneath) the boards.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805072292
• ISBN 13: 9780805072297
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Lewin Betsy
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224