Oh Rats! The Story of Rats and People

from Lee:

Over the years, the cover of Oh, Rats! has attracted my attention. I finally picked it up and was pleased to discovered that it was a pretty quick and enjoyable read even though I am neither drawn to rats nor a particularly voracious reader of nonfiction.

Marrin opens his book anecdotally with a boyhood surprise encounter with a rat a construction site. The author, at seven, was viscerally terrified and ran faster than he had “ever done before or since,” and ends up in tears, covered in cement, in his father’s arms.

'Pa told me not to be afraid. Rats were always around construction jobs… “Take it easy, kid,” he said in that calm way of his. “Learn about them; you'll feel better.”

And I did.’

The author shares show more many interesting ways these tenacious and omnipresent creatures interact with each other and humans. Do you know what a rat king is? Do you know where rats are considered a delicacy and where their hair and feces are considered an unavoidable “ingredient” in common foods? Do you know which useful jobs they do for humans? The tone, while largely level and conversational, seems at times to suggest that the author might still secretly retain a squeamish bias from childhood. I enjoyed his polymath approach (pulling from scientific, literary, etymological, historical, and cultural sources) to what quickly became a fascinating subject.

C.B. Mordan's black, white, and red illustrations are themselves reason enough to turn the page. show less

I almost skipped this book because....rats.

But, wow. This was so interesting, and I have a better understanding of rats. Will I still be horrified if I ever come across a wild rat? Absolutely. Will I ever be open to eating a rat? Nope.

But I can appreciate them a little bit more than I did before I read this book.

Not to mention, the art is beautifully haunting.

Oh, Rats! Is the story of how rats and humans have interacted throughout history. Sometimes the interaction is congenial, sometimes not so much. The book has great engaging writing with clear concepts that readers will easily understand. The author picked interesting topics, like the Rat King and the plague, that will inform and readers. The book is meant to be read cover to cover as opposed to a book readers might reference for a report. Individual chapters can be read and understood independently but it is best read as a single work. I almost forgot to mention the amazing illustrations! The illustrations perfectly compliment the writing. They are interesting without being scientific, just like the writing. I would recommend this book show more to users who like creepy creatures, including reluctant readers. This would not be an appropriate primary source for reports about rats but might be good supplemental material for students who want to know the interesting (and factual) stuff as well as the just-the-facts-ma’am books. show less

This is a fascinating book about the different roles rats play in society- from carrying diseases to saving lives by detecting landmines and TB through people's saliva. When I first picked it up, I wasn't sure what to expect. It was a fascinating read. I especially liked the inset passages giving more rat-related information. The illustrations went with the text beautifully. The author takes a matter-of-fact stance and opens with an antidotal story about his first encounter with rats. I would recommend this book to any student interested in learning more about rats. I can see how the book would appeal to gifted students. The content is explored in an interesting way and examines many different ways the lives of people and rats have show more intertwined throughout history. show less

If you're looking for something fun and gross for the upcoming Halloween holidays, look no further! Oh, Rats! has plenty of tidbits both fun and gross about rats. Marrin covers pet rats, rats as food, rats as carriers of disease, and rats as aids to society. The pen and ink (?)illustrations by C. B. Mordan are all done in shades of black, white and red giving them an eerie quality heightened by the red rat eyes that stare out from each picture. This is a very balanced look at rats with Marrin giving equal time to both their good and bad traits. Perfect for upper grade school students and older, Oh, Rats! also includes a bibliography, a list of sources for further exploration and a list of juvenile literature that include rat characters.

Ugh! I hate rats! That being said, I still managed to get through this book. Excellent (and grossly excellent) information. I still hate rats, though.

Oh, Rats! describes where rats come from, their ways, how humans treat them including how to eat them, the diseases rats bring, the annoyances rats cause, how to get rid of rats, and ways rats have actually helped people. This book teaches readers to not only not judge a book by its cover, but also things become less scary the more you know about it. I learned that rats find land mines due to their great sense of smell. Also surprisingly, while rats do carry disease, they are actually cleanly creatures. This book could be used for any science or social studies class. Students could pick a topic they found interesting such as atomic bomb testing, bubonic plague, or "roborats" from the book. I also enjoyed the side notes on some pages, show more such as a passage about rats surviving a testing of the atomic bomb on the island of Engebi in their deep burrows. show less