A review by matthewdaviddavies
I Was a Rat! by Philip Pullman

4.0

"I Was a Rat!" tell's a version of the Cinderella story from the point of view of a rat. He was turned into a little boy by magic, and escorted Cinderella to the ball, where she fell in love with the charming prince, but he was so busy playing with the other page boys that he got left behind and wasn't turned back. The book uses a mixture of text, illustration and newspaper pages to tell of his various misadventures on the way to becoming part of a loving family. There is a lot going on in this book, it's funny and touching with a very warm heart, even if some of the social commentary is a little heavy handed at times and may go over younger reader's heads. It could be used in KS2 as a class reading book and would lend itself to quite a range of activities: looking at newspapers, both as texts and questioning their role in society; thinking about how changing the point of view changes a story; examining societal attitudes towards children ad probably many more!