Product Description

Imagine a million clever rats. Rats that don't run. Rats that fight...Maurice, a scruffy tomcat with an eye for the main chance, has the perfect fiddle going. He has a stupid-looking kid for a piper, and he has his very own plague of rats - rats who are strangely educated, so Maurice can no longer think of them as 'lunch'. And everyone knows the stories about rats and pipers - and is giving him lots of money...Until they try the trick in the far-flung town of Bad Blintz, and the nice little con suddenly goes down the drain. Someone there is playing a different tune. A dark, shadowy tune. Something very, very bad is waiting in the cellars. The rats must learn a new word. Evil. It's not a game any more. It's definitely a rat-eat-rat world down there. In fact, that might only be the start...Bestselling novelist Terry Pratchett leads readers from tale to tail in a darkly imaginative and fiendishly entertaining story, the first for younger readers set in the Discworld universe, the setting of his phenomenally successful fantasy novels.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #239030 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Terry Pratchett returns to children's stories and to his infamous Discworld with Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, a clever spin on the Pied Piper fairytale with a lavish sprinkling of the Practchett magic.

Maurice is a talking cat who leads a band of rather special rats from town to town to fake invasions of vermin. Keith, in cahoots with Maurice, turns up with his flute and leads the rats out of town--a hefty reward in tow. It's a scam that works perfectly... until they arrive in the town of Bad Blintz and their ruse is sussed by the young girl Malicia. Maurice and his mice realise they are about to be caught in the middle of something rather bad.

This is a fresh and funny adventure story that allows Pratchett to make free use of his immense comic talents (the talking rats are easily some of his most hilarious creations). It's also full of cute little ideas: the mice take their names from cans and packets lying in rubbish dumps, so we have heroes called "Big Savings" and "Best Before".

Terry Pratchett has created a wonderful, old-fashioned tale where the subtle morals and lessons never hinder the action. Younger children may initially struggle with Mr Pratchett's unusual style, but once they get to grips with the humour, this will be a laugh-a-minute for both kids and their parents. (Ages 8 and over) --Jon Weir

From the Back Cover
Maurice, a streetwise tomcat, has the perfect money-making scam. Everyone knows the stories about rats and pipers, and Maurice has a stupid-looking kid with a pipe, and his very own plague of rats – strangely educated rats…
But in Bad Blintz, the little con suddenly goes down the drain. For someone there is playing a different tune and now the rats must learn a new word.
EVIL.
It's not a game any more. It's a rat-eat-rat world. And that might only be the start...
‘One of Terry Pratchett’s funniest creations…. It all adds up to a wonderful book – hilarious, brilliantly constructed and shot through with an edginess to balance the laughs’ SFX Magazine
‘Enticing and occasionally gory’ Observer
‘A laugh-a-minute’ Times Educational Supplement

About the Author
Terry Pratchett is one of the most popular authors writing today. He lives behind a keyboard in Wiltshire and says he 'doesn't want to get a life, because it feels as though he's trying to lead three already'. He was appointed OBE in 1998. He is the author of the phenomenally successful Discworld series and his trilogy for young readers, The Bromeliad, is scheduled to be adapted into a spectacular animated movie.

Customer Reviews

Great for Rat Lovers
The great thing about this book is that it's a book with rats in, and the rats actually behave like rats. If you know what (pet) rats are like, then you can see that Terry Pratchett has done their imagined dialogue and social arrangements to perfection. They really are this funny.

Best line: person to rat - 'shall I carry you to the table?' rat to person - 'shall I bite your finger off?'

A wonderful evocation of rats and a funny book. Buy it for anyone, particularly rat keepers, or those you want to persuade to like your rats.

Amazed by Amazing Maurice
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is a disc world novel, about a cat with a clever plan. Maurice with his group of intelligent rats and a 'stupid looking kid' called Keith, who can play a pipe, go from town to town, pretending that there is a plague of rats. Keith plays his pipe to lead the rats out of town. In the town of Bad Blintz things don't go according to plan.

The rats get caught out by an over imaginative girl called Malicia, who tries to make everything in life a story. There are rat catchers who also have a plan, to steal food and blame it on the rats. All things go wrong, thanks to the mysterious power of the rat king, who has the ability to control rats, cats and humans. The rat king can dominate their wills and make them slaves.

The story also features Death and the Grim Squeaker (a special death of rats). In the end Death comes for Maurice and Dangerous Beans (an intelligent rat with the idea for a dream island for the rats, with no cats or humans). Maurice sacrifices two of his nine lives to save himself and Dangerous Beans. The story ends with the death of the rat king, the rats and the mayor of Bad Blintz, join together to make a perfect town, Keith becomes a rat piper, and a new story begins with Maurice.

The weird thing is the rats didn't know how they became intelligent. In the end they realise that they ate rubbish contaminated with magic from the Unseen University of Magic. Maurice ate a rat and also became intelligent an able to speak. I think the moral to this story is you are what you eat.

Robin Luddington, aged 10

The Amazing Terry Prachett and his talent to write
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (by Terry Pratchett) is one of the best books ever written. It's all about a rather let's just say "unsual" tomcat- Maurice. He, along with his educated rodents and a stupid-looking kid called Keith (who isn't quite as stupid as he looks) has a plan. Their plan is to get as much money as they can, and find an island, just for rats. Maurice, however, is mainly it for the money. If you have noy already read this book, you will probably be wondering what I'm talking about, cats rats and a boy working togeather and making money. How an Earth could they do that? I'll tell you how. The bit where they make the money isn't really a plan egzacly. More like a scam. First, they find a rich-looking town and move in. Second, the rats move in underground. Third, the rats go around terrorising people (but because they're educated rodents, not just normal rats, they do it with a twist. Eg: one rat, called Sanddines likes to give some people a fright by dancing in front of them). And lastly, fourth, Keith comes along with Maurice pretending to be a piper, plays his penny-whistle and gets rid of the rats, just like that and he gets paid. Easy, huh? But then they go to a town called Bad Blintz, and their plan does'nt go as well as planed...
A must-read for all book-lovers.