Bad Rats (with Audio CD)

Josiah was a rat. He was a bad rat......or so he was told. In fact, Josiah and his friends are aspiring artists, and for a rat, painting outside the box like that just won't do.Follow along as Josiah and several other inspired rats teach their professor the value of creativity.The companion Book-on-CD will transport you and your child into Josiah's world with sound effects and wonderful performances by children and adults. The dramatic storytelling is narrated by the author and features his young nephew, Eli Drachman, among other delightful voices! (Audible page turns help your children follow along as they learn to read.)

In thoughtful prose, Drachman (Leo the Lightning Bug) delivers readers to a school for Bad Rats, where the repressive Professor Perimeter explains to his pupils, You are bad because you follow your heart and not your mind. Our minds make things neat and our hearts are messy. Though each of the rats dreams of becoming an artist, Perimeter teaches them to abandon their creativity in favor of scurrying and hiding, until at last he rediscovers his own messy heart and strolls off into the sunset. Sepia and gray tones predominate in Muscarello's illustrations, softly rendered in charcoal, ink and watercolor; but his muted palette gives way to color as the mood of the text changes. The accompanying CD is in some ways better than the book, as the extensive dialogue lends itself to Drachman's considerable talents as a performer; moreover, the CD moves slowly enough to allow new readers to follow along. Ages 4–8. (June)
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First of all, let's get one thing straight. The characters in this book are rats. Rats who aspire to be artists. Joshua rat and his friends have been chastised for their creative endeavors by their teacher, Professor Perimeter, who insists that they not paint outside the box. But staying in the lines isn't what being an artist is all about. In a story with a message about the value of creativity, Eric Drachman narrates unobtrusively. As the professor, he sounds authoritative and imperious toward the miscreants. As the voices of the creative rodents, Eli Drachman and others steal the show--sounding both innocent and exuberant. An original musical score adds vitality to a fun production with a message. A.R. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine