Product Description

"How can someone so small make so much noise?" wonders Mr Bear. Mr and Mrs Bear and their woodland friends try everything, but nothing, it seems, will quieten the baby -- until her big sister has an idea ...Every parent will smile at Mr Bear's familiar predicament, read with warmth and delight by Paul McGann. The CD is accompanied by a wonderful newly packaged picture book, illustrated with warm, glowing artwork and a tender story and featuring Mr Bear - one of Orchard's most successful characters. >

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1691080 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback

From Amazon.com
Lauren Child, creator of the popular Clarice Bean books, lavishes her zany, ultramodern, mixed-media attentions on the animal kingdom in That Pesky Rat. This brown street rat lives in a trash can in Grubby Alley, longing to be someone's pet. He knows plenty of animals who are pets. Pierre, a chinchilla, lives in the lap of luxury with Madame Fifi who feeds him chocolates. Nibbles, a lop-eared rabbit, works in a circus with Mr. Hoopla. (With all the trapezes and such, she may have a life that's "a little too nerve-wracking," but at least she has a name other than that pesky rat.) Miss St. Clair does puzzles with her Scottie dog, Andrew, and makes him wear a little hat and coat. "I don't think clothes would suit me," says our rat. "But I would do anything to be somebody's pet." One day, the rat takes the matter into his own paws and posts a notice in Mrs. Trill's pet store: "Brown rat looking for a kindly owner with an interest in cheese." Fortunately, the myopic Mr. Fortesque thinks he is a cat, and of course, no one corrects him. They live happily ever after, Mr. Fortesque and... Tiddles. Child's funky, clashing-pattern collages complement this sweetly earnest story of a creature who wants to love and be loved, even if it means having to wear a little sweater. (Ages 4 to 8) --Karin Snelson

From Publishers Weekly
In this uplifting tale, a needle-nosed rodent yearns "to belong to somebody. To be a real pet. Most of all I would like to have a name, instead of just that pesky rat." The trash-can resident envies his apartment-dwelling buddies, like the chinchilla who grouses, "It's not all cushions and chocolates," and the Scottish terrier who doesn't like to wear a plaid coat: "It's kind of embarrassing when we go shopping." Undeterred by his friends' compromises, the rat posts a flyer ("looking for kindly owner with an interest in cheese") and hangs around a pet store, until a man with poor eyesight mistakes him for a cat and adopts him. Child (Beware of the Storybook Wolves) sketches her characters in a thick, loose black line, then uses these drawings in high-voltage photo-collages. Her crazy-quilt compositions, which include cutout pictures of furniture and bathroom tiles, patterned fabric and wood-grain wallpaper, suggest a skewed world where a city rat might endear himself to an eccentric fellow; it also helps that the sympathetic title character speaks in the first person. Instead of highlighting the rat's sneakiness, the redemptive ending conveys his devotion: "So what if I have to wear a sweater? Mr. Fortesque says, `Well, Tiddles, who's a pretty kittycat?' And I squeak, `I am!' " Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-He doesn't have a home or an owner, and, most of all, he doesn't have a name-and that pesky brown rat wants all three. He wants "to live with creature comforts. To belong to somebody. To be a real pet." In this hilarious paean to dreaming big (and learning to compromise), the rodent looks at Pierre the chinchilla, who belongs to Madame Fifi; Nibbles the rabbit, who works in a circus; and Andrew the Scottie dog, who lives with Miss St. Clair. All seem to have ideal lives, although Pierre endures a shampoo once a week; Nibbles walks the high wire, and maybe that's a little too nerve-racking; and Andrew has to wear a little hat and coat when he goes shopping with his owner. When nearsighted Mr. Fortesque misreads the rat's handwritten notice in a pet store ("Brown rat looking for kindly owner with an interest in cheese"), the critter is in luck. "My, what a pointy nose you have, and, goodness me, what a long tail, and such unusual beady eyes.-I've been looking for a brown cat as nice as this one for ages," says the Magoolike man. There, on the last page of this sprightly book, illustrated with goofy collages and bright, bold watercolor drawings, is the rat, happy at last, and dressed in a little sweater. And when Mr. Fortesque asks, "Well, Tiddles, who's a pretty kittycat?" he squeaks, happily, "I am!"-Dona Ratterree, New York City Public Schools
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.