The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
Author Terry Pratchett
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Story
Rats are intelligent, especially when they’ve eaten magical rubbish and joined forces with a clever cat called Maurice to relieve a town of its rat plague - and most of its money.
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Why we chose it
The Amazing Maurice was Terry Pratchett’s 28th Discworld novel but his first for children. A funny and mischievous twist on the traditional tale of the Pied Piper, this is a delightful introduction to Discworld and a celebration of the power of story.
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What a young reviewer said
This book is absolutely hilarious! Incredibly witty and exciting with complicated themes about sentience very subtlety executed. Talking animals, magic, death and Terry Pratchett humour. What more would you want? (Thomas, age 13)
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First published
2001, Corgi, Penguin Randomhouse
Story Reviews
Our reviews come from a team of young story lovers! If you’re aged 8–16 and keen to join in, learn how to become a reviewer for The Story Museum.
A con cat named Maurice, with his educated rodents and a piper boy called Keith behind him, enters Bad Blintz. They would normally just send teams of rats to disarm traps and to generally cause chaos, but this is no regular town. Above ground the town is ruled by the mayor and two lying, cheating rat catchers and below it ruled by the mysterious Spider, the mad king rat. With the help of the mayor’s daughter named Malicia, obsessed with stories, they need to defeat Spider and find out what it means to be intelligent. This book is absolutely hilarious! Incredibly witty and exciting with complicated themes about sentience very subtlety executed. Talking animals, magic, death and Terry Pratchett humour. What more would you want?