The Clan is a group of rats who came to awareness and intelligence after feeding on a magical refuse pile. Maurice is a cat who started talking about the same time. Together with the dumb looking kid, Keith, they have a fantastic plan for stripping government of their money.

But in Bad Blintz the story takes an unexpected turn.

This is the first Discworld book geared specifically for a younger audience. It doesn't feel like it's geared towards kids. It's a fun book with plenty of moral lessons and twists and turns and muddy intervals. I love Maurice and Sardines and Keith and Peaches.

And in my opinion the book is far superior to the animated show floating out there. ( )

Sempre em molarà molt Pratchett, pero aquesta a més és de les noveles juvenils més entretingudes que he llegit.

El protagonista és un gat i rates que parlen. I a més fa molts homenatges a contes clàssics. No se que més puc demanar!
( )

2024-02-11: This may be Pratchett's greatest work. It's an entertaining story that also manages to teach some things that people really, desperately, need to understand if humanity is going to survive. ( )

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents is a Discworld retelling of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. It is the 28th book in the series, the first aimed at a YA audience, and can easily be read as stand alone.

As the story starts we are immediately introduced to Maurice (a talking tom cat), a group of talking rats (who have taken names from canned goods), and a stupid looking kid (named Keith, not that they've ever asked) traveling by coach to the town of Bad Blintz. Maurice is planning how to scam the town by using the old rat piper routine by first staging a rat invasion and then offering the solution as the kid poses as a piper to lead the rats away for a small fee. This isn't sitting well with the rats as it seems immoral and everyone agrees it will be the last time they perform this stunt. As the group moves into town to get started, they discover all is not as it seems and things turn deadly as Maurice and the Clan uncover the town's dark secret.

Terry Pratchett is a master at working deeper themes into what seems like it would be a simple story. It's also pretty dark for one aimed at kids, showing how nasty humanity can be at times. I enjoyed all of the characters immensely and found the names the rats had chosen for themselves (such as Dangerous Beans and Hamnpork) to be fun and quirky. Even Malicia grew on me with her "Sisters Grim" view of the world and thinking of everything as a story. It's a pretty profound insight into the human. She makes a good point: "If you don't turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else's story." ( )

DNF @ Page 45.

Jon wanted this book because he loves cats and there's a cat on the cover. Which is pretty misleading because the story isn't really about the cat, it's about rats - The cat is barely there! (At least up until page 45)

Maurice is a talking cat and has come upon a group of intelligent talking rats. He has vowed not to eat any rat that can talk. They end up working together as they move to a town with the intent of… ok, I’m not exactly sure what their end goal was – money? They were conning people, or planning to. There are two kids who discover them and decide to help when they discover the local rat-catchers were not only catching rats, but behind other bad things, as well.

This was ok. It’s a terrible summary, but there it is. Not as humourous as I remember of the other (few) books I’ve read by Pratchett. I hate footnotes, though, and even more so in fiction, but Pratchett uses them. Luckily, there were not many in this book. ( )

I have now read this book to my class 11 times. That should tell you what I think about it. ( )

Is it possible at all to give less than 5 stars to a Pratchett book? On the surface this one is a funny tale about speaking animals but. as it`s usual with Sir Terry, there is so much behind it. ( )

I am a fan of Terry Pratchett, and didn't like this one as much as his other books. But I did like the spin he took on the Pied Piper theme. A nice, quick, funny read. ( )

http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2006-10.html#maurice ( )

I continue to like Pratchett’s light comic adventures and not love them. They’re relentlessly paced and quippy in a way that gets tiring after a while, if these aren’t read in one sitting, at least. This one’s got some differences, namely that it’s actually got chapters (something I realize I appreciate having read a handful of these) and it’s animals doing all the quips. There are a couple moments where it gets a little serious which I liked. Otherwise, it’s standard Pratchett. ( )

> Animal Farm ( )

Brilliant. TP's wit and refreshingly different story telling weave a gripping tale perfected by the underlying philosophical themes on the rights of intelligent beings. ( )

The best children’s books are not full of sweetness and light and lollipops; they’re full of fear and death and monsters. So it is with The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. This is set in the Discword universe. Yes, there are talking animals; the titular Maurice the cat and a mischief of rats, victims/beneficiaries of a magical accident that left them sentient and intelligent. They setup a scam to make themselves rich enough to escape to a place where rats can live in peace – but their best laid plans go astray, and they’re confronted with fear and death (in this case, Death) and monsters. A particular part I liked is the older rats are portrayed as conservative and stodgy and authoritarian – rat Tories or rat Republicans - and it would have been an easy, cheap shot to turn them into villains. But, instead, when things go down they display traditional virtues; loyalty, bravery, and self-sacrifice. Recommended, even if you’re not a child. Especially if you’re not a child. ( )

Talking rats uncover a conspiracy.

3/4 (Good)

The characters are fun, and the sense of humor is good. The story is badly constructed and overstuffed.

(Nov. 2021) ( )

Had to happen sooner or later. This is the first (sort of) Discworld book that disappointed me. I just simply could not get into it. I don't mind the odd talking animal, and Pratchett's made good use of them in the past with only one or two in the story. But when it's the majority of the cast? No.

And when he's very obviously dumbed down the humour for the YA crowd? Even more no.

I say sort of Discworld because Pratchett does make passing mention to Discworld things. The Death of Rats, the Watch, etc. But honestly, he could have just as easily left out those nods and made this a standalone, non-Discworld novel (or maybe I'm just thinking, if it hadn't been a Discworld entry, I likely wouldn't have read it, and remained fully happy with the run).

Being completely honest here, almost any other author would have been awarded a single star for this, but Pratchett, over the course of the previous 27 amazing books, has built up a bunch of goodwill with me. That being said, I know I'm going to have an automatic flinch reaction when I come across the next YA Discworld book due to my dislike of this one.

And that bums me out. ( )

Okay. This is the first of the Discworld books for children (which are also read by everyone else who reads Discworld books, because you just can’t not read a Discworld book just because it’s for children). Although set in the Discworld, it has no characters in common with Discworld books, other than a short cameo appearance from Death (and the Grim Squeaker, the Death of Rats), which makes it unusual, as the stories usually have more characters that appear in multiple books.
However, it’s a lovely variation on the Pied Piper of Hamelin, skilfully told (as usual), with plenty of human soul and wisdom, and some humour (not as much as many of the other books).
Great! ( )

audiobook; middlegrade/teen fantasy fiction (talking animals, standalone volume)

There were funny parts, but it was pretty similar to other Pratchett novels--probably best not to read too many in quick succession. ( )

Usually it's okay to plunk down in the middle of Discworld somewhere and not be lost. Not with this one. I have no idea what just happened. ( )

The Discworld's version of the Pied Piper of Hamlin was unexpectedly creepy and at one point did bring a tear to my eye. ( )

The Changelings – a clan of educated rats – know a lot about people. People know little about rats except that they steal food and cause plagues. When the Changelings arrive to a town that suffers from a shortage of food, they find, as expected, townspeople who hate rats and want to see them gone, by whatever means it takes. But no one is prepared for what else they'll find in the town.

On one level, “The Pied Piper of … Discworld” is a humorous take on famous fairy-tales. Both sides assume that their opponents will react like they do in fairy-tales, and the “fun” is that nothing happens as prescribed. On another level, the story deals with animal cruelty and its consequences. Survival is tricky when the bad guys do much more than getting rid of rats with poison and traps.

The humor, the unexpected turns and twists, and most of all, the interesting, and sometimes hilarious, characters combine into an amazing story I intend to reread. Highly recommended! ( )

A humorous take on rat/human negotiations ( )

The best, laugh-out-loud funny re-telling of the pied piper story ever; with an amazing cat & rats that both can talk!

A book where you learn that EEEEKKK! Is not a word. ( )

I now know more about rats than I ever thought I wanted to ( )

Re-read 2019

This may be billed as a YA novel by the redoubtable Pratchett, but I'm just going to shrug. It's fun and funny and I will always look at this novel as a sly reference to Vernor Vinge's [b:A Fire Upon the Deep|77711|A Fire Upon the Deep (Zones of Thought, #1)|Vernor Vinge|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1333915005l/77711._SY75_.jpg|1253374], including multiple minds linked together to make a full intelligence. No, not wolves. RATS. Such a lovely image.

But no, this isn't all this is.

Talking rats and one very special talking cat and a stupid-looking boy con their way through Discworld. What more could anyone want? Villains, pied pipers, rats in human skin? Ah! But this is Pratchett and we've got all that and sausages that don't deserve the name sausage.

It really is quite delightful. :)

No. Not the sausage. The BOOK. :) ( )