When You Wish upon a Rat
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
With echoes of such classic wish-gone-wrong books as Freaky Friday, Half Magic, and Coraline, this terrific novel has the potential to become a middle-grade staple.
Eleven-year-old Ruth Craze is pretty sure she’s stuck in the wrong life. With an absentminded inventor for a father and a flighty artist for a mother, it’s always reliable Ruth who ends up doing the dishes, paying the bills, and finding lost socks. Her brothers are no help (they’re too busy teasing her), and her friends have just decided she’s not cool enough to be a part of their group anymore. So when Rodney the Rat—a slightly sinister stuffed animal that was a gift from her favorite aunt—suggests a way out, Ruth is ready to risk everything. Three wishes. Three chances to create her perfect life. A million ways to get it wrong.
Praise for When You Wish Upon a Rat
"Winning, original moments."
—Kirkus Reviews
"An engaging look at friendship and family."
—Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Australian author McCarthy (Rose by Any Other Name) creates a fun variation on the three wishes motif in her first middle-grade novel, which features Ruth Craze, an 11-year-old who has had it with her sloppy, noisy family. A magic toy rat named Rodney, inherited by Ruth from her beloved aunt, provides three opportunities for Ruth to change her life. "You describe your perfect life and I'll do my very best to get it happening for you," claims the talking rodent. Mostly, Ruth wants to get rid of her annoying family members, but predictably she discovers that trying to change or escape them results in more pain than gain. Having perfect parents, it turns out, can be even more irksome than having eccentric ones, and Ruth also learns that she isn't cut out for a restricted life at boarding school or the flashy lifestyle of a celebrity. Smart, big-hearted, and believably flawed, Ruth has all the characteristics of a classic heroine; trickster Rodney, brash but lovable enough to win his mistress's affection, remains more of an enigma. Ages 8 12.
