Rat Riddle

Animal Ark Pets (UK Order) #18

by Lucy Daniels

Mandy Hope loves animals and knows lots about them too - both her parents are vets! So Mandy's always able to help her friends with their pet problems...

Mandy and James's school-friend Martin has been given a pair of fancy rats for his birthday. Cheddar and Pickle love to race around their 'Incredible Rat Run'. At first, Mandy finds that Pickle is the fastest. But then Pickle's times begin to slow down. Then Pickle gets stuck in the run. What on earth is wrong with the little rat? Then Mandy's father investigates. It turns out that Pickle is a she, not a he, and she's pregnant! Now Martin has to keep Cheddar and Pickle apart - but Mandy knows Pickle will be back on prize-winning form as soon as she's had her babies...

Genres: Animals, Childrens

121 pages, Paperback

Published June 17, 1999

About the author

Lucy Daniels is the collective name for the writing team that created the bestselling children's book series Animal Ark, many of the books are also published under the name of the series creator, Ben M. Baglio.

Reviews

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Domestic rats, usually called fancy rats, make great pets. However, most people loathe and are terrified of rats. This book does not ignore this prejudice. In fact, this book was never published in America. About a dozen Animal Ark Pets books weren't. Can't help but wonder if Scholastic refused this because it featured rats.

This was really written by Linda Chapman, who wrote many books in the Animal Ark Universe. She was familiar with writing about Mrs Ponsonby, who plays a big role here. Amy Fenton puts in an appearance, along with Sooty's schoolgirl owner and Jill Redfern, owner of Toto (who really deserved to get his own book in the series, but never did.)

This is also a very English book at times. American readers might be confused as to why the rats are named Cheddar and Pickle, but those two words naturally go together in England, just as peanut butter and jelly go together in America.

There is also a mention of flapjacks, which in the UK are not pancakes. They're a kind of very filling granola bar. There's even a drawing of one. I do like Paul Howard's work overall for this series, but he's not that great at drawing rats.

I'm not really sure many pet rat parents would build such fantastic rat runs as depicted here, but had to tip my metaphorical hat at Chapman's imagination. Nothing like a deadline to turn you briefly into a genius ... or genius enough to complete the assignment, anyway.

Rat Run would've been a better title. The obvious title would've been Rat Race, but perhaps people would've gotten it mixed up with an early book in the series, Rabbit Race.

[Rachel (Sfogs) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such an adorable story! I loved the 'Rat Race' what a great idea for keeping pet rats entertained! And the picture of the baby rats was very cute, I've always wanted a pet rat!

[Taylor Troncin]

Loved this series when I was younger. Still a huge animal lover and would like to read the rest of this series!