Your Friend the Rat

by Walt Disney Company, Jim Capobianco

When a little rat named Remy tries to become a chef in a famous French restaurant, there's bound to be trouble. This full-color Read-Aloud Storybook retells all of the action of Disney / Pixar's latest animated feature film, Ratatouille!

Genres: Animals, Childrens

24 pages, Hardcover

First published September 11, 2007

About the author

Note: The decision was made to consolidate all Disney publications under the name Walt Disney Company. This profile is for Walt Disney, the characters he created, and the company he founded. Any questions, please ask in the Librarian's Group.

Walter Elias “Walt” Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. As the co-founder (with his brother Roy O. Disney) of Walt Disney Productions, Disney became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation he co-founded, now known as The Walt Disney Company, today has annual revenues of approximately U.S. $35 billion.

Disney is particularly noted for being a film producer and a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He and his staff created some of the world's most famous fictional characters including Mickey Mouse, a character for which Disney himself was the original voice. He has been awarded four honorary Academy Awards and has won twenty-two competitive Academy Awards out of fifty-nine nominations, including a record four in one year, giving him more awards and nominations than any other individual. He also won seven Emmy Awards. He is the namesake for Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the United States, as well as the international resorts Tokyo Disney, Disneyland Paris, and Disneyland Hong Kong.

Disney died of lung cancer in Burbank, California, on December 15, 1966. The following year, construction began on Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. His brother Roy Disney inaugurated the Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971.

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) (commonly referred to as Disney) is the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, the company was reincorporated as Walt Disney Productions in 1929. Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into live-action film production, television, and travel. Taking on its current name in 1986, The Walt Disney Company expanded its existing operations and also started divisions focused upon theatre, radio, publishing, and online media. In addition, it has created new divisions of the company in order to market more mature content than it typically associates with its flagship family-oriented brands.

The company is best known for the products of its film studio, the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, today one of the largest and best-known studios in Hollywood. Disney also owns and operates the ABC broadcast television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, and ABC Family; publishing, merchandising, and theatre divisions; and owns and licenses 11 theme parks around the world. On January 23, 2006, it was announced that Disney would purchase Pixar in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 billion. The deal was finalized on May 5. On December 31, 2009, Disney Company acquired the Marvel Entertainment, Inc. for $4.24 billion. The company has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since May 6, 1991. An early and well-known cartoon creation of the company, Mickey Mouse, is the official mascot of The Walt Disney Company.

--from Wikipedia

Reviews

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all to clear the wrong information out of this air is the description of this book. Although this book is based with the characters from Ratatouille, it is not actually around the movie itself in which the rat is trying to become a chef. Instead Remy and his family takes the reader on a journey to discover the world of rats such as their traits, their intelligence, their similarities to human and how they are used for science, etc.

Although I love the content and the way that it is presented to the reader who may be interested in the subject there are a few bumps. First of all the book being a "Little Golden Book" has fallen from its standard as great reads for little children as there are some rough words for children who may not be fully at the reading level to understand meanings. In these cases it may be easier for parents to just switch the word if they can and make it something easier although that can confuse an older reader.

My second bone to pick is the fact that the author and company made it sound like rats have voluntarily offered themselves up to the scientific world when everyone knows they didn't have a choice on that. I appreciate the fact that the book recognizes some of their contributions but it shouldn't be recognized under false information although a lack of information could have possibly been a bit helpful since you don't want to make the book morbid although I did add some of those morbid facts for my own reading, which I don't know how my sister took that.

All in all it is a great non-scientific based book that will get children to overlook their fear of rats and understand some of their greatest shares in the world of mankind. It can also be used interactively with either the movie or making up rat-based activities if you are a teacher who wants to use this book for a lesson in class one day.

[MKF · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book I got my daughter and she loves it! It's a simple book that just tells you about rats. My problem with it is that unlike many of the other Golden Books they chose bigger words. My daughter is six and words like biology, symbiotic, and descendents trips her up when she is reading. I have helped her sound the words out and explained what they are but she still struggles with them.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick to read Little Golden Book based on Ratatouille that presents different attributes about rats, the animals. This features cute illustrations with familiar characters, although the story itself is not an adaptation of Ratatouille. It is a very brief and cute informative book with a Ratatouille coating.

[Katey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is based on the delightful short that accompanied the DVD of the movie Ratatouille, and while this little synopsis hits the main points, it does lose a lot of its animated charm. I hate that Your Friend the Rat (both the book and the short) is extremely accurate but for the part "Many, many rats have dedicated their lives to finding cures for humanity's most dreaded diseases," complete with a drawing of a rat peering into a microscope alongside a scientist with a test tube. I understand why you don't want to get into vivisection and animal testing in a lighthearted children's book, but there was no need for this gross misconstruction of the facts. For a book/short/movie that pushes back against speciesism in its own way, it quickly undermines its own thesis and sweeps under the rug the difficult ethical and cognitive dissonance we humans have towards other animals. And it didn't have to do that. It could have plainly stated what was on the next page: "Rats and humans share a similar internal biology." It could have also gone on to say "This is why they are used in experiments to test our medicines." No accurate cartoon drawing would have been acceptable, but hopefully you see my point. A simple truth statement is better than manipulation. Lying to kids causes more problems.

This review has at least 3x the word count as the book. I just really love rats, and I have a particular interest in how they are portrayed in art and pop culture. Ratatouille is one of the few Disney movies I can stand to watch. Of course it wasn't very popular with kids. But it has some very good points to make about elitism and prejudices, individualism and community/society, and how kindness, goodwill, and respect can help bridge the gap between these and all things to make life bearable (and sometimes, even good).

Do yourself a favour and watch Your Friend the Rat on You Tube and then stream/rent Ratatouille.