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Emmy #1
Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat
Emmy was a good girl.At least she tried very hard to be good. She did her homework without being told. She ate all her vegetables, even the slimy ones. And she never talked back to her nanny, Miss Barmy, although it was almost impossible to keep quiet, some days.
She really was a little too good. Which is why she liked to sit by the Rat. The Rat was not good at all . . .
Hilarious, inventive, and irresistably rodent-friendly, this is a fantastic first novel from acclaimed picture book author Lynne Jonell.
She really was a little too good. Which is why she liked to sit by the Rat. The Rat was not good at all . . .
Hilarious, inventive, and irresistably rodent-friendly, this is a fantastic first novel from acclaimed picture book author Lynne Jonell.
346 pages, paperback
First published August 7, 2007
107 people are currently reading
3436 people want to read
About the author
Lynne Jonell
20 books90 followersLynne Jonell is an author (and occasional illustrator) of sixteen books for children, from picture books to novels for ages 8-12, all with an element of fantasy: magical hamsters, talking cats, tiny planes with a secret fuel, rodents with special powers, and more. Her novel Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat won the Minnesota Book Award; her latest book, The Sign of the Cat, is a swashbuckling sea adventure. Coming in 2018 is Far Sight, Deep Time, a time-travel novel set at her ancestral castle in Scotland.
Her books have received starred reviews in Horn Book, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Sesame Street Parents, and have been published in nine languages. She teaches writing at the Loft Literary Center, is married and has two sons, and lives in Plymouth, Minnesota.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/lynnej...
Her books have received starred reviews in Horn Book, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Sesame Street Parents, and have been published in nine languages. She teaches writing at the Loft Literary Center, is married and has two sons, and lives in Plymouth, Minnesota.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/lynnej...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 651 reviews
November 29, 2008
I first picked this book up when I was browsing at the library because I loved the cover design. I loved the simplicity of Jonathan Bean's illustration and the combination of sweet Emmy and the ill-humored rat in the tree above her. The thoughtfulness of design continues inside with illustrations that together make a flip book along the outer edges of the pages. This book had me hooked visually right from the start.
Story-wise? I really loved Emily and the Incredible Shrinking Rat. It was sweet and funny and cheeky and had a wonderful plot. I also found it to be refreshingly innocent - it didn't have a lot of the flash that many books for young kids today seem to have (due of course, to their non-existent attention spans*).
My daughter is about to turn five, and I think that she's only very slightly too young for this but I'll definitely be reading it to her in about a year. I wouldn't be surprised if this became one of her favorite books. It's already one of mine.
*I hate it when books make this assumption about kids... that everything has to be bright and shiny and super-fast paced in order to keep their attention. EATISR was anything but those things, and was still completely engaging.
Did I mention that I loved it? Because I did.
Story-wise? I really loved Emily and the Incredible Shrinking Rat. It was sweet and funny and cheeky and had a wonderful plot. I also found it to be refreshingly innocent - it didn't have a lot of the flash that many books for young kids today seem to have (due of course, to their non-existent attention spans*).
My daughter is about to turn five, and I think that she's only very slightly too young for this but I'll definitely be reading it to her in about a year. I wouldn't be surprised if this became one of her favorite books. It's already one of mine.
*I hate it when books make this assumption about kids... that everything has to be bright and shiny and super-fast paced in order to keep their attention. EATISR was anything but those things, and was still completely engaging.
Did I mention that I loved it? Because I did.
September 12, 2007
Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, by Lynne Jonell, is extremely well-written, with bathroom humor, pathos, and believable and sympathetic characters of both the human and rodent kind.
Emmy is a very rich, very lonely little girl. Her parents are constantly going off on long trips and leaving her with a horrible nanny, Miss Barmy. Worse, she recently changed schools and no one in her class acts like she exists. When Emmy starts hearing the class pet rat talking to her, a whole exciting and fantastical series of events unfold.
The rat has special powers; in fact, he is one of many rodents with special powers, most of them living in a shop in town where the evil Professor Vole does experiments with them. Soon Emmy begins to learn the powers of the other rodents and she realizes that Miss Barmy is using the rodents to control her, her parents, and even her classmates! Miss Barmy is after Emmy's family's fortune and she will stop at nothing to get it.
Emmy, the rat, and Emmy's new friend Joe join forces to stop Miss Barmy's evil plan. Using the resourcefulness of the other rodents, some ingenious catapults, and a lot of sneaking around, they wage war against Miss Barmy with hilarious and satisfying results.
This book has everything a good children's novel should: abandoned children, talking animals, a truly evil villian, and a little bit of magic. Hooray!
I mustn't forget to mention the terrific illustrations by Jonathan Bean on each page of the novel. As the reader creeps through the story, a rat creeps across a tree branch and then falls, very slowly, into outstretched hands. It is a flipbook and a beautifully done one, too.
Emmy is a very rich, very lonely little girl. Her parents are constantly going off on long trips and leaving her with a horrible nanny, Miss Barmy. Worse, she recently changed schools and no one in her class acts like she exists. When Emmy starts hearing the class pet rat talking to her, a whole exciting and fantastical series of events unfold.
The rat has special powers; in fact, he is one of many rodents with special powers, most of them living in a shop in town where the evil Professor Vole does experiments with them. Soon Emmy begins to learn the powers of the other rodents and she realizes that Miss Barmy is using the rodents to control her, her parents, and even her classmates! Miss Barmy is after Emmy's family's fortune and she will stop at nothing to get it.
Emmy, the rat, and Emmy's new friend Joe join forces to stop Miss Barmy's evil plan. Using the resourcefulness of the other rodents, some ingenious catapults, and a lot of sneaking around, they wage war against Miss Barmy with hilarious and satisfying results.
This book has everything a good children's novel should: abandoned children, talking animals, a truly evil villian, and a little bit of magic. Hooray!
I mustn't forget to mention the terrific illustrations by Jonathan Bean on each page of the novel. As the reader creeps through the story, a rat creeps across a tree branch and then falls, very slowly, into outstretched hands. It is a flipbook and a beautifully done one, too.
March 1, 2021
This was so much fun! Definitely a creative, humorous, quirky adventure! I loved it so much. Emmy is always a good girl. She always does her homework, eats all her vegetables, & never talks back to Miss Barmy, her nanny, even though it’s almost impossible most days. Which is why she sits next to the Rat. He’s not very good at all. She thinks if she’s good, her parents will want to stay home w/her more. After a while though, it gets a bit much. No one ever seems to see her, or even remember her. Then she makes 2 friends in class-the Rat, & a boy named Joe. She stumbles upon a whole rodent community too! Lol She also learns that her nanny is up to some very bad things. So Emmy, along w/her new human & rodent friends, try to find a way to stop the nanny & her evil plans. This had me so entertained lol I was laughing so much, full of suspense another, & just totally engrossed the whole time. The backstory, the current storyline, & all the details that make up the stories combined are just so creative & I loved every second. I love that little rude, cantankerous Rat lol he stole my heart. Emmy is an amazing MC. I loved reading from her. All the side characters even are just great. The other rodents are just as amazing side characters as the human ones. Even the villain, Miss Barmy, is so well written. I loved to “hate” her. This was humorous, cheeky, & full of heart.. & innocence in a way. Another book-hug worthy book for sure. Highly recommend. Can’t wait to start book 2! Love this beautiful cover by Jonathan Bean..as well as the illustrations at the top of every page & the little rat on every page. Beautiful!💜
September 8, 2007
It's easy to become jaded. Read enough children's fiction and it all begins to swim and swirl about in your head. Was that the middle grade novel about a girl who likes a boy with twinkling blue eyes or deep brown ones you just read? Did that historical fiction work involve a plucky boy working in a coalmine or a plucky girl in a mill? And fantasy? Don't get me started. If the villains don't burst onto the scene in the first chapter it's the exception rather than the rule. I gotta say though that when it comes to rodents with magical powers, there are few titles to turn to. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh was strictly scientific (that is, if you can forget the movie). I, Freddy is more along the lines of The Mouse and the Motorcycle than anything else. No, mice and magic don't intersect all that often. One can't help but think that if they did the result would be wuh-eird. Wuh-eird, as it happens, is not a bad word to describe author Lynne Jonell's startling middle grade debut. At this point in my review's introductory paragraph I usually like to compare the book in my hands to titles you might be familiar with. Something along the lines of, "It's like James and the Giant Peach meets The Perils of Peppermints." But when it comes to "Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat," there's not much you can compare the book to. It's one of a kind, and how kids take that originality will be interesting to note, indeed.
Poor Emmy. Nobody notices her. Not her parents who are constantly jet-setting around to globe. Not her schoolmates or her teacher, who all seem incapable of remembering her name. No, it's just Emmy, her somewhat frightening nanny Miss Barmy, and the school rat. The Rat not only pays attention to Emmy but talks to her sometimes too. Granted it tends to tell Emmy to try being bad once in a while, but the girl knows that it has a good heart beneath its prickly demeanor. Soon, however, Emmy finds that the Rat is not all that it seems to be. Talking is just the least of its abilities, and as the girl discovers more about her nanny and the woman's sinister plot involving Emmy, her parents, and a host of exotic rodents, so too does she establish a core group of friends who will aid her through thick and thin.
There is something distinctly Dahl-like hidden in the crevices of this book. Much of the plot relies on old Roald Dahl standbys, like malicious caretakers, controlled magic, and children who are far cleverer than the adults that surround them. And if I'm not too much mistaken, I think that there's even a tip of the hat to Ramona Quimby in this book. Where else, after all, have you ever heard the National Anthem sung with the words, "daaawnzer lee liiight"? Still, sometimes the book felt less than entirely consistent. You're never quite sure exactly how small Joe and Emmy become when they're shrunk. Joe is able to wear G.I. Joe clothing sometimes, but at other moments he's supposedly large enough to play soccer with some chipmunks. Then again, we're told that "We're only a few inches high, you know. Four feet, to us, is going to seem like being on top of a six story building." Inconsistencies like this made it hard to visualize the action.
There are also some convenient plot devices that raised an eyebrow but weren't really distracting. Apparently when you shrink, your clothes shrink along with you (as opposed to in The Dark Ground). Also, Jonell requires that you remember some pretty minor characters from the beginning of the book all the way to the end, which I thought was a bit odd. I liked the internal logic going on here, though. I liked the peculiar world Jonell had envisioned and how neatly everything slotted into it. I can guarantee to you that if you've a child who has read the oeuvre of Roald Dahl and wants a little something extra, "Emmy" is a good way to go. Ideal for any child who has felt ignored or looked over at some point in their life. Which is to say, most every child.
Poor Emmy. Nobody notices her. Not her parents who are constantly jet-setting around to globe. Not her schoolmates or her teacher, who all seem incapable of remembering her name. No, it's just Emmy, her somewhat frightening nanny Miss Barmy, and the school rat. The Rat not only pays attention to Emmy but talks to her sometimes too. Granted it tends to tell Emmy to try being bad once in a while, but the girl knows that it has a good heart beneath its prickly demeanor. Soon, however, Emmy finds that the Rat is not all that it seems to be. Talking is just the least of its abilities, and as the girl discovers more about her nanny and the woman's sinister plot involving Emmy, her parents, and a host of exotic rodents, so too does she establish a core group of friends who will aid her through thick and thin.
There is something distinctly Dahl-like hidden in the crevices of this book. Much of the plot relies on old Roald Dahl standbys, like malicious caretakers, controlled magic, and children who are far cleverer than the adults that surround them. And if I'm not too much mistaken, I think that there's even a tip of the hat to Ramona Quimby in this book. Where else, after all, have you ever heard the National Anthem sung with the words, "daaawnzer lee liiight"? Still, sometimes the book felt less than entirely consistent. You're never quite sure exactly how small Joe and Emmy become when they're shrunk. Joe is able to wear G.I. Joe clothing sometimes, but at other moments he's supposedly large enough to play soccer with some chipmunks. Then again, we're told that "We're only a few inches high, you know. Four feet, to us, is going to seem like being on top of a six story building." Inconsistencies like this made it hard to visualize the action.
There are also some convenient plot devices that raised an eyebrow but weren't really distracting. Apparently when you shrink, your clothes shrink along with you (as opposed to in The Dark Ground). Also, Jonell requires that you remember some pretty minor characters from the beginning of the book all the way to the end, which I thought was a bit odd. I liked the internal logic going on here, though. I liked the peculiar world Jonell had envisioned and how neatly everything slotted into it. I can guarantee to you that if you've a child who has read the oeuvre of Roald Dahl and wants a little something extra, "Emmy" is a good way to go. Ideal for any child who has felt ignored or looked over at some point in their life. Which is to say, most every child.
September 22, 2025
There’s something to be said for a book that I can enjoy as an adult as much as I did at age 9–this is a truly excellent work of children’s literature that has sadly already been somewhat lost to time. Admittedly, this might be because it’s slightly batty (or more accurately, ratty).
June 7, 2019
Cute!!!!!
January 26, 2008
Funny and creative. I've seen some people comment that they think has an old fashioned feel and should have had a Victorian setting, but I don't think that the time frame really makes a difference.There isn't tons about cell phones or the Internet here--this book could have been written as easily in 1958 as 2008, and as a result, this has a timeless feel to it and won't date quickly. Nor do I think that kids will be quick to find a message in this about overscheduled kids or narcissistic parents. They'll just have fun with Emmy, Joe, the Rat and the rest.
March 13, 2011
I thought this was quite original and an interesting read--and I love the "flipbook" effect in the margins (flip the pages and the pictures "move") :-) It moves along at a good pace and has plenty of humor. Well-written and enjoyable.
July 2, 2010
Mengapa banyak orang -termasuk saya- tetap mencintai dan memburu buku anak-anak meskipun usia sudah tidak bisa dibilang muda? Dalam beberapa hal, karena kemampuan buku-buku tersebut untuk membawa saya mengunjungi dunia imajinasi yang tak berbatas. Dengan kesederhanaan yang indah, dengan sudut pandang anak-anak yang mungkin tak pernah terpikirkan oleh kita. Itu sebabnya saya sangat salut dengan penulis buku anak-anak yang bisa menyelami dunia mereka, bahkan setelah melewati ambang kedewasaan, ketika kepekaan rasa mulai terkontaminasi oleh hal-hal duniawi.
Sebelum melantur lebih jauh, dunia ajaib semacam itulah yang saya temukan di buku Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat - dialihbahasakan menjadi Emmy dan Tikus Penciut yang Menakjubkan. Emmy adalah gadis kecil yang kaya raya dan baik hati namun tidak bahagia, karena tidak ada yang peduli padanya. Orangtuanya selalu bepergian sementara teman-teman di sekolahnya seakan tidak pernah menyadari kehadirannya. Dan semua itu berawal ketika keluarga kecil Emmy mendapat warisan melimpah, yang membuat mereka meninggalkan kehidupan lama yang sederhana sebagai pemilik toko buku kecil, dan menjalani kehidupan baru yang bergelimang uang. Juga bertemu Miss Barmy, pengasuh Emmy yang cantik tapi kejam.
Siapa sangka, melalui pertemanannya dengan seekor tikus di sekolah, Emmy bisa membongkar kedok Mrs. Barmy yang berniat jahat pada keluarganya, sekaligus berkenalan dengan hewan-hewan pengerat dengan kemampuan luar biasa. Hewan-hewan cerdas yang bahkan bisa membangun kota mereka sendiri di bawah tanah.
Terus terang, saya sampai berdebar-debar membaca buku bersampul imut ini. Setiap kali Miss Barmy muncul, saya berseru-seru -dalam hati tentu saja- supaya Emmy segera menyelamatkan diri. Terbukti buku anak-anak pun tak kalah menegangkannya dengan buku dewasa.
Seperti biasa, selalu ada pesan yang tersirat dalam setiap kisah di buku anak-anak. Di sini, penulis Lynne Jonell ingin menyampaikan bahwa hal-hal duniawi seperti harta dan kekuasaan sesungguhnya tidak lebih berarti dibandingkan kehangatan cinta, pertemanan dan keluarga. Seandainya semua anak yang membaca buku-buku dengan pesan indah seperti ini terus membawa nilai-nilai tersebut sampai mereka dewasa, alangkah hebat masa depan yang menanti mereka.
Semua itu yang membuat saya selalu terpikat pada buku anak-anak, dan, kadang-kadang, berharap tidak pernah beranjak dewasa agar bisa hidup di dunia ajaib selamanya :)
Sebelum melantur lebih jauh, dunia ajaib semacam itulah yang saya temukan di buku Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat - dialihbahasakan menjadi Emmy dan Tikus Penciut yang Menakjubkan. Emmy adalah gadis kecil yang kaya raya dan baik hati namun tidak bahagia, karena tidak ada yang peduli padanya. Orangtuanya selalu bepergian sementara teman-teman di sekolahnya seakan tidak pernah menyadari kehadirannya. Dan semua itu berawal ketika keluarga kecil Emmy mendapat warisan melimpah, yang membuat mereka meninggalkan kehidupan lama yang sederhana sebagai pemilik toko buku kecil, dan menjalani kehidupan baru yang bergelimang uang. Juga bertemu Miss Barmy, pengasuh Emmy yang cantik tapi kejam.
Siapa sangka, melalui pertemanannya dengan seekor tikus di sekolah, Emmy bisa membongkar kedok Mrs. Barmy yang berniat jahat pada keluarganya, sekaligus berkenalan dengan hewan-hewan pengerat dengan kemampuan luar biasa. Hewan-hewan cerdas yang bahkan bisa membangun kota mereka sendiri di bawah tanah.
Terus terang, saya sampai berdebar-debar membaca buku bersampul imut ini. Setiap kali Miss Barmy muncul, saya berseru-seru -dalam hati tentu saja- supaya Emmy segera menyelamatkan diri. Terbukti buku anak-anak pun tak kalah menegangkannya dengan buku dewasa.
Seperti biasa, selalu ada pesan yang tersirat dalam setiap kisah di buku anak-anak. Di sini, penulis Lynne Jonell ingin menyampaikan bahwa hal-hal duniawi seperti harta dan kekuasaan sesungguhnya tidak lebih berarti dibandingkan kehangatan cinta, pertemanan dan keluarga. Seandainya semua anak yang membaca buku-buku dengan pesan indah seperti ini terus membawa nilai-nilai tersebut sampai mereka dewasa, alangkah hebat masa depan yang menanti mereka.
Semua itu yang membuat saya selalu terpikat pada buku anak-anak, dan, kadang-kadang, berharap tidak pernah beranjak dewasa agar bisa hidup di dunia ajaib selamanya :)
May 4, 2018
Crazy. Creative. Delightful.
This is a book I would never have picked up on my own. I’ve been reading The Read-Aloud Family by Sarah MacKenzie and decided to try this from one of her reading lists. I realized that I’ve been reading too much to my daughter from the genre I’m most attracted to and needed to expand our reading horizons. We listened to this on audio through Hoopla on our trips in the car and my daughter absolutely loved it. The story seemed so kooky and nonsensical at first to me, but the author brought it all together in a fun way, dealing with important themes in a truly creative and delightful way. Anything that makes my reading-resistant ten year old delight in story to the point of being upset when the story is finished is a winner for me.
This is a book I would never have picked up on my own. I’ve been reading The Read-Aloud Family by Sarah MacKenzie and decided to try this from one of her reading lists. I realized that I’ve been reading too much to my daughter from the genre I’m most attracted to and needed to expand our reading horizons. We listened to this on audio through Hoopla on our trips in the car and my daughter absolutely loved it. The story seemed so kooky and nonsensical at first to me, but the author brought it all together in a fun way, dealing with important themes in a truly creative and delightful way. Anything that makes my reading-resistant ten year old delight in story to the point of being upset when the story is finished is a winner for me.
August 7, 2022
I listened to this on audiobook and I speeded it up from 1.0 to 1.75 . Despite the fact that it was I highly speeded up I understood it PERFECTLY FINE. (Yes this review was for you Mommy)
Edit: I just realized my review says nothing about the book itself so I thought I'd say that I really liked this book and it was quite funny.
Edit: I just realized my review says nothing about the book itself so I thought I'd say that I really liked this book and it was quite funny.
September 8, 2025
“Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat” by Lynne Jonell is super fun. I would say for reading it’s probably for 10-14 year olds, but I’m considering listening to the AMAZING audiobook with my second graders.
Emmy is a good girl, who tries to please the adults around her. But after a huge life change she is being cared for by a wicked nanny. Without giving too much away, she befriends the class rat who she discovers she can understand. As the story progresses, layers of intrigue are exposed and friendships develop.
I really loved this. There are a couple of loose ends (i.e. the cane), but perhaps they are explained in another book. However, I would totally recommend it for even the whole family.
5/5 if I could, I would do higher.
Emmy is a good girl, who tries to please the adults around her. But after a huge life change she is being cared for by a wicked nanny. Without giving too much away, she befriends the class rat who she discovers she can understand. As the story progresses, layers of intrigue are exposed and friendships develop.
I really loved this. There are a couple of loose ends (i.e. the cane), but perhaps they are explained in another book. However, I would totally recommend it for even the whole family.
5/5 if I could, I would do higher.
January 23, 2018
(This review was written by my 11 year old.)
Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell had memorable characters, a good mystery and many hysterical moments.
Many of the characters had realistic personalities and quirks. For example, Joe had a love for soccer but felt that he played too much of it. I can relate with that from my love of gaming although I may overwhelm myself with too much of it. What makes this a good mystery is that has many twists and turns. When you feel like you got the answer it will pull a 180 on you, however the answer becomes reassuring. This book ends like a Saturday morning cartoon; with the antagonists chasing each other like Tom and Jerry.
Overall this was an amazing book because of it's charming mystery, relatable characters and grade A humor. I would recommend it to any viewers who would want to test their minds and have a laugh.
Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell had memorable characters, a good mystery and many hysterical moments.
Many of the characters had realistic personalities and quirks. For example, Joe had a love for soccer but felt that he played too much of it. I can relate with that from my love of gaming although I may overwhelm myself with too much of it. What makes this a good mystery is that has many twists and turns. When you feel like you got the answer it will pull a 180 on you, however the answer becomes reassuring. This book ends like a Saturday morning cartoon; with the antagonists chasing each other like Tom and Jerry.
Overall this was an amazing book because of it's charming mystery, relatable characters and grade A humor. I would recommend it to any viewers who would want to test their minds and have a laugh.
March 5, 2023
5 stars for the flip-book effect!
The plot was quirky and the rats and other rodents were really cute, but I think there was maybe a little too much focus on the quirk without enough substance to back it up. The tone felt off to me, kind of like it was written for children by someone who hasn’t spoken to an actual child since 1950. This was fine, but I don’t feel compelled to read the rest of the series.
* Reading Olympics Spring 2023
The plot was quirky and the rats and other rodents were really cute, but I think there was maybe a little too much focus on the quirk without enough substance to back it up. The tone felt off to me, kind of like it was written for children by someone who hasn’t spoken to an actual child since 1950. This was fine, but I don’t feel compelled to read the rest of the series.
* Reading Olympics Spring 2023
May 5, 2017
Really cute and enjoyable! This was a very fun book to read, despite all the aggravating moments of the 'villain' being the most HORRIBLE and HATEABLE character that I've read about in a long time! IT WAS AWESOME! Heartless bad gals with too much power always make stories 100x more interesting. This story is just so well told, and I'm really glad I had the chance to read it.~
January 25, 2019
I absolutely LOVE this book!!!!!!!! I couldn’t possibly have gotten bored or stopped reading this!!!!! This book was about a little girl named Emmy, her evil nanny, a rat, Emmy’s friend Joe, and a mysterious shop. Emmy and Joe go on an adventure to find out why people buy the goods at the shop. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone!!
July 14, 2022
Read Aloud Review: We loved this story! Both kids have stated they loved it and highly recommend others to read. I also enjoyed the story, themes, and the writing flowed well for reading aloud. A really fun, unique adventure story of a girl who helps save her parents and defeats the nanny with ill intentions.
January 23, 2019
I read this in 4th grade? 5th grade? on the recommendation of my friend. I remember I enjoyed the rebellion stuff (because of course I did) but it creeped me out a bit too (as did almost every book this particular friend recommended-it's the talking animals probably).
March 21, 2019
This book was an amazing book, the storyline was very well set up. It was just my reading level. The main character Emmy had an amazing personality. It was a book that I wanted to read. It was crazy how they all shrunk and how they were playing soccer. The ending tied back to the beginning, that was a part of the book that i loved. it was just crazy how some of the stuff happened.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 23, 2018
I was looking for a mystery to read for the May challenge and while cleaning out my children's books I found this. I was attracted by the cover artwork and the extension of the art inside the book as a flip book. The story is about a girl who has been left with a terrible nanny, and her adventures after being bitten by the class pet, a rat. I liked the story, it was very imaginative.
January 20, 2019
Such an adorable book! And, as a person with pet rats, I think this book did an amazing job with portraying them as the quirky, caring, loving selves they are.
September 1, 2023
This book ate in 2013 and it ate even more ten years later
Read
February 20, 2025continuing my streak of rereading old books from middle school
April 10, 2021
I loved this book. I got assigned it for a book group and finished it in 2 days. I couldn't put it down. It was very interesting and I look forward to reading more from Lynne Jonell
January 30, 2023
4.5 stars
June 12, 2023
I forgot this book existed until I was using it for a book display and decided to read it again and
1. I didn't notice the sheer number of puns it uses when I read it as a kid & OH BOY are there a lot of them
2. This is such a weird concept, but it's executed pretty well, so good for Lynne Jonell
1. I didn't notice the sheer number of puns it uses when I read it as a kid & OH BOY are there a lot of them
2. This is such a weird concept, but it's executed pretty well, so good for Lynne Jonell
May 10, 2019
This book was funny and amazing. The relationship between the rat and Emmy was bad at first but when Emmy got to know the rat, she fell in love with it. She loved that the rat wasn't an ordinary rat. My favorite part was when Emmy found out the Rat can shrink. Emmy was shocked with what the rat can do. Emmy and the rat late would work together to get through obstacles that get in their way. When the rat was fully shrunk they really couldn't fight through obstacles together. Emmy later kept the rat in her room as a pet. She did this because she wanted to be with the rat forever.
January 11, 2021
I like quirky books and this one did not disappoint. Even though the central character is a girl, there is equal measure of guy stuff and bathroom humor, but nothing over the top. The other interesting thing is that there is nothing in this book that is going to date it. This will be something that will delight in years to come as it has since published in 2007.
I am not a large fan of rats, but when they start to talk and give advice based on what they have observed from TV shows and the class room where the one rat was a class pet. There are good guys, bad guys, a nasty nanny, potions, and chicanery. And an entire underground city for rodents with a train transport.
This would make a great read-aloud if you can get it out of your child's hand once he starts it.
I have to add this because it is just too coincidental that this popped up just as I finished this book:
A brief aside in World Magazine Vol 35:20, dated 10/24/2020. p. 17
A large, gray rat has become the surprising recipient of a gold medal from a U.K. charity. Magawa, an African giant pouched rat, earned the medal from the Veterinary charity PDSA for "life-saving devotion to duty, in the location and clearance of deadly landmines in Cambodia." Trained to sniff out unexploded landmines and light enough not to set them off, the 7-year old rat has discovered 39 landmines in Cambodia and alerted his handlers to them. PDSA says the Asian nation has up to 3 million undiscovered landmines left over from armed conflict that began in the 1970's;
Gives you a new appreciation of these un-handsome animals.
I am not a large fan of rats, but when they start to talk and give advice based on what they have observed from TV shows and the class room where the one rat was a class pet. There are good guys, bad guys, a nasty nanny, potions, and chicanery. And an entire underground city for rodents with a train transport.
This would make a great read-aloud if you can get it out of your child's hand once he starts it.
I have to add this because it is just too coincidental that this popped up just as I finished this book:
A brief aside in World Magazine Vol 35:20, dated 10/24/2020. p. 17
A large, gray rat has become the surprising recipient of a gold medal from a U.K. charity. Magawa, an African giant pouched rat, earned the medal from the Veterinary charity PDSA for "life-saving devotion to duty, in the location and clearance of deadly landmines in Cambodia." Trained to sniff out unexploded landmines and light enough not to set them off, the 7-year old rat has discovered 39 landmines in Cambodia and alerted his handlers to them. PDSA says the Asian nation has up to 3 million undiscovered landmines left over from armed conflict that began in the 1970's;
Gives you a new appreciation of these un-handsome animals.
February 16, 2009
Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat is an engaging mix of Matilda (not as spunky), Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (not as scientific), and Coraline (not as dark). It held my attention, though I found parts of the storyline not well explained. I wasn't overly annoyed, for example, by the many inferences I had to make into Miss Barmy's (the evil nanny) character, but was hoping for more explanation into the origins of her evilness at the end. This is a work of children’s literature, however; and they are probably not troubled by the same shortcomings as this adult reader. Emmy is a likable, intelligent protagonist with an unusual insight into the psyche of adults and rodents. It's easy to feel her pain when everyone at school, including the teacher, seems to find her invisible. The unraveling of that problem is a more than adequate tale, touching on important themes to young readers: family togetherness and love, popularity and friendship, loyalty and vindication. I'd recommend this novel for 4th-6th grade elementary students, both boys and girls.
September 1, 2007
It's impressive how Jonell manages to inform the readers of all characters' personalities, feelings, and actions without ever straying away from Emmy's perspective: readers only know what she sees, hears, and thinks. The outlandish circumstances with all the super(magical?)-powers of the rodents are accompanied by a gentle tale of friendship, longing for parental love, and the essence of stable families. I mentally applauded the several jabs at the absurdity of the over-scheduling of our children.
The illustration with the flip-book margin of Rat falling and Emmy catching him ceases being a gimmick when it visually sums up the spirit of the story: "Don't worry. We're friends. I will catch you if you fall."
The illustration with the flip-book margin of Rat falling and Emmy catching him ceases being a gimmick when it visually sums up the spirit of the story: "Don't worry. We're friends. I will catch you if you fall."
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