Oh, Rats!
Description
When a hawk snatches up an adventurous squirrel named Phoenix, he’s ready to kiss his tail goodbye. But what should have been a death sentence becomes the beginning of a sweeping big-city adventure in this captivating novel by National Book Award–nominated author Tor Seidler.
Phoenix is a pretty big deal in his neck of the woods: The biggest in his litter with the most lustrous fur and by far the bushiest tail, he’s one of the most sought-after squirrels in New Jersey—which makes his kidnapping by hawk even more dramatic.
Luckily, the hawk doesn’t have the best grip. Unluckily, he drops Phoenix on a freshly-tarred street in downtown Manhattan. Now stripped of his gorgeous golden-brown coat, Phoenix looks like nothing more than a common sewer rat. Fortunately for Phoenix, it’s not a pack of sewer rats that find him (they’re a notoriously surly bunch), but rather wharf rats.
Taken in by siblings Lucy and Beckett, Phoenix is welcomed into a rat pack living in abandoned piers on the Hudson. But when they learn of plans to demolish the piers, Phoenix is swept up in a truly electrifying scheme to stop the humans from destroying his new friends’ home.
Praise for Oh, Rats!
"A charming tale of identity, migration, gentrification, and organized resistance."
— Kirkus Reviews
*"A moving animal-fantasy kids will want to squirrel away for repeated reading."
— Booklist, starred review
"A charming tale of finding oneself and choosing one’s own destiny."
— School Library Journal
"Seidler playfully allows readers a squirrel’s-eye view of the world, but, more seriously, with questions of creature cooperation and interspecies relationships, he fosters deeper contemplation."
— Horn Book Magazine