Friday, May 6, 2011

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat


Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat
Author: Lynne Jonell
Publisher: New York : H. Holt, 2007.

Plot Description:
            Emmy feels completely invisible most of the time.  No one at school ever talks to her, not even her teacher knows her name.  Her parents are off jetting around Europe again.  The only person who ever really talks to her is her nanny, Miss Barmy, but that’s usually to scold her or make her take another kind of medicine.  Then of course, there is the rat.  The rat is the classroom pet, and he is full of conniving schemes.  Like how Emmy should let him go free.  One day Emmy does, and thus starts an adventure she couldn’t imagine.  One that explains why no one seems to notice her.  Because they’ve all been convinced she doesn’t exist. 

Review:
            Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat is a great tween read.  Friendless Emmy is out to finally learn how to stand up for herself, and is able to make a friend or two in the process.  She, with the help of the rat and her new friend Joe (who got sucked into this mess by the rat as well), discover that her nanny isn’t all that she seems.  The book mixes fantasy well, and the reader ends up believing that all this might just happen.  I would definitely recommend this to both boy or girl tweens, its mix of fun-filled adventure combined with Emmy coming into her own is hard to resist!

Genre: Humorous Fiction

Reading level: 5th Grade

Similar Books: The School Story

Reader’s Advisory:
Personal thoughts- Really fun story
Subjects/themes- animals, rats, fantasy, humor
Series information- There is a second book about Emmy
Character names/descriptions-
            Emmy- can’t understand why no one seems to notice her
            Joe- the first kid in her class, who notices her after the rat bites him
            Miss Barmy- Emmy’s nanny, who is just  a bit odd
Annotation: Not all rats are pesky rodents. 

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