Fun: I Was a Rat!

Philip Pullman's books for YA readers leave me a bit cold; I never quite trust Pullman to give me a happy ending, which I'm a bit addicted to. I do trust him to give me a true ending, which is even more important, but I'm not always in the mood for the harsher kinds of true.

So I've always kind of avoided his younger books as well, and this summer I'm finding out that I've been depriving myself of some really fun reads. I Was a Rat! has been hanging around my house for years and years, and I've always avoided it because I thought it was a sociological look at poor orphans or something, when really it's a glance at what happens after Cinderella's ball, if one of the transformed rats misses the return trip and stays stuck as a boy.

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And yes, Pullman lets all sorts of rotten things happen to the boy, but he also provides him with a family, so we know that somehow everything will turn out all right. I had a lot of fun with the book, and now I hope I've buried some more of his works on my TBR shelf to be discovered this summer. And I've handed the book over to my sons with a recommendation; maybe we'll make it a book club book.