Little Rat Rides

Witty early chapter books for young readers. Sounds impossible, no? Not so. The much neglected and little appreciated early chapter book genre is too often filled up with garbage like "Dick and Jane" and "Care Bears" books. It takes real skill and resolve to find titles for this reading level that are halfway decent, let alone urbane. Enter the dizzying duo of Monika Bang-Campbell and Molly Bang. With Bang-Campbell's clever asides flittering about the book and Bang's delicate watercolors perfectly complimenting the action, "Little Rat Rides" is probably the best early chapter book written within my lifetime. I kid you not. Little Rat has a dream. In her previous adventure, "Little Rat Sets Sail" it was to learn how to sail without giving into her fears. Now her fears stem from an entirely different source. Little Rat wants to learn how to ride a horse, just like her daddy once did. Wanting something and getting it turn out to be two entirely different matters, however, when our heroine comes face-to-face with the gentle "mountain on four legs" Pee Wee. Little Rat's newfound reluctance isn't helped by a malicious goat that sometimes gets in the horse's way, or the bumps, bruises, and accidents that befall our intrepid hero. The fact that Little Rat sticks with riding becomes an impressive act, and by the end she and Pee Wee have deservedly won fifth prize in the big Fourth of July Horse Show. The story in and of itself doesn't sound like much, I'll grant you. And if a lesser author and a lesser illustrator were working on it, I'd probably recommend it to horsey fans and leave it at that. No, what's amazing here is what the author has done with the simplest of words. Scenes that are humorous are also almost dry in their delivery. When Pee Wee accidentally stands on Little Rat's foot, she tries to get him off by shoving him. "But Pee Wee was a giant horse, and Little Rat was a little rat. You do the math". The book's full of small asides like this. On top of the superb writing, there also lies a story about sticking with something even if it's hard. Little Rat's first thoughts when meeting the humongous Pee Wee are somewhere along the lines of, "We have cars now. Why learn to ride a horse?". Children who are just beginning to join organized sports, take up instruments, or learn new hobbies will sympathize with the suddenly reluctant Rat. Those that are taking riding lessons of their own may even remember thinking similar thoughts. Illustrator Molly Bang hardly needs introduction, but I'll give her one anyway. From her almost Impressionistic, "When Sophie Gets Angry... Really Really Angry" to her subdued scientific "My Light" (a wonderful way to explain electricity and other forms of energy to kids), Ms. Bang is adept at a wide range of styles. She knows how to wield paint and pencil equally well and I'd trust any book in her hands. The "Little Rat" series is done with watercolors, pencil, gouache, and a smidgen of

My pre-schooler was enchanted by the whole story and I find her retelling the story over and over again to her friends. It is a book always in her hands for me to read one more time.My first grader is hesitant to read and not into horses, so she wouldn't have picked the book off the shelf. But when her little sister brought it home, she discovered that the book was very approachable. The writing was simple, the font was laid out with lots of white space and the illustrations were engaging. So with a litle bit of encouragement, she did read it herself and found that Little Rat was a pretty interesting character.As a mom, I found Little Rat's story of trying something new to be positive and upbeat. The "lesson" was gently told and with humor--in a way that doesn't insult the reader. We got it out of the library first, but it was the kind of book you'd want in your child's library, so we ordered a copy of our own.