Rats!: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Richard Conniff is the author of several adult nonfiction books including Every Creeping Thing: True Tales of Faintly Repulsive Wildlife and numerous articles for such magazines as National Geographic, Smithsonian, and Time, winning the National Magazine Award. He has also written and presented nature
programs for National Geographic Television, the Discovery Channel, and the BBC.
From the Hardcover edition.

Grade 4-8-From the endpapers that picture rats jammed together like commuters on a rush-hour subway to the erratic but exciting design and chapter headings that look slightly chewed, this volume is as entertaining as it is informative. Conniff opens with the amazingly fast life cycle of rats-giving birth for the first time at three months and again every three weeks, a female rat can have as many as 60 or 70 babies in one year. Species, biology, behavior, trivia, myths, and lore-all are here. The author discusses the damage and disease rats can cause and the wars humans wage against them, experimentation and ethics, rats as food, and rats as pets. The tone is always lively and the information is well balanced. The animals' intelligence (they are better at logic and navigation than humans and they have amazing memories) and survival skills (they can swim three days without stopping and can survive nuclear radiation) will impress even the most phobic readers. The design is colorful and busy, with pages crawling with photos and headings and captions that can, at times, be slightly hard to read. However, the writing is clear and conversational, and the author's contagious fascination with these creatures is sure to hold the attention of even reluctant readers.
Susan Oliver, Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library System, FL
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.