Author(s): Terry Pratchett

Teen Fiction

Is Discworld ready for educated rats?

Set in the Discworld, a brand new and marvellously eccentric fantasy tale for young readers.

Maurice, an amazing cat, who has survived four years on the toughest streets in the whole of the Discworld, reckons that rats are dumb. Clever, OK, but dumb. Maurice, however, is smart -- smart enough to recognize that there’s a new kind of rat around; rats that have been eating wizards’ rubbish and can now talk. And Maurice is also smart enough to get a pretty amazing idea when he spots a kid playing the flute. Now he has his very own Pied Piper to go with his “plague of rats”. And Maurice’s money-bags are getting fuller and fuller. That is, until the group reaches the far flung village of Bad Blintz.

Kathleen's review - In my view, Terry Pratchett can't get it wrong. Here he does a clever sideways spin on The Pied Piper of Hamelin while staying inside his wonderfully quirky creative space and continuing to make wry comment on society. This one of the series is aimed at teens, so there's not the depth of political or religious commentary, and is an excellent and very funny step into Discworld.