Saturday, August 9, 2014

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat Book Review

Since I'm horribly unorganized and forgetful, I missed a book review! Should have been publish before Book Haul but I got too exited. So sorry Emmy.


Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat

By Lynne Jonell 

(I love the authur's name! Jonell, ohh la laa)

Formal Information

Pages- 346 pages
published- Henry Holt and Co in 2007

FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW

Emmy's family suddenly inherits a ton of money when a distant relative dies. They suddenly decide move across town and Emmy gets a new house, a new school, and a new nanny: Ms. Barmy. Her parents also suddenly aren't home anymore and are always out on trips and with people they don't care about, and the children and teachers in Emmy's school act like she's invisible- literally. After a sudden act of defiance, Emmy discovers her Nanny's evil plans, why everyone is acting strange, and how the talking rat that she sit next to ties in to all these mysteries. 


NOW YOU KNOW YOU'LL WANT TO KNOW MORE

"-wishing you a good evening from Channel 82 , where we care about you, we share about you. we lay every detail bare about you"
This channel- oh this channel. I mean this channel. I read this quote and had to pause for a moment to let the words sink in and then felt this rush of thankfullnes for my normal, privacy-respectable, news channel.

The twists and turns! The SLY FORSHADOING and I love sly forshadoing. LOVE. and this book is full of that. This is a re-read and I've read the second book and noticed how Lynne included a lot of small, seeming insignificant, details that make a BIG DEAL in the second book. You know what? This whole book is just a collection of Lynne slyness.

But its not all sun shine.


The Villain: SHE'S A *****

Let me introduce you to  Mr. Barmy. A manipulate, evil, liying, horride person. She reminds me of the worst kind of teacher. The type that blames you for everything and celebrates nothing. I felt so bad for Emmy to have to deal with that- and ALONE, since he parents aren't there. As you read you see her little plans and words that are done and said to slowly crush Emmy's spirit and its horrible. But in a weird way I did like reading about her- in a 'I love to hate you' way.

Annddddd Emmy. I was wondering how I felt about her for a bit and figured it out: She has her priorities. She wants to save her friends but more than that she wants to save her parents. And that made me routing for her through out the book and- although it made me disappointed- I understood the moments where she wished someone else had to go through this and considered things that weren't the nicest. But in the end of the day she's loyal and she's kind and she tries her best.
'Emmy was a good girl. At least she tired very hard to be'
First sentence in the book sums up her character pretty well.

But surprisingly by the end of the book my favorite characters were the rats. These rats can easily steal the spot light from the other characters. Ratson, the main rat, has hilarious to read about. He acts very confident and haughty and at first I didn't like him very much. But he has too frequent moments where his over condifence leads to disaster and embarrasment. So when he finally had his moment to shine I was pretty happy and revealed (no more second hand embarrassment.) But there were many other furry characters- one that left me so envious that Emmy had him was Endear mouse. The most ADORABLE person er- rat I have ever met er- read....


Zee Art.

The hardcover is all nice and papery like sketchbook paper and I really love that texture. But. BUT. I removed the dust jacket to find- ahhhh! It's so pretty!!! Orange cover with  rat drawing embedded in blue and the book title bunched up and bending. I really liked it. and while reading you have a flip book illustration that runs all along the side of the pages and if you flip through them quickly the pictures move! *Giddly* I just really like it and after showing it to my little cousin- she never let me read in peace afterwards. I have to show her the animation-

9 times.

What I'm Trying to Say is

Read this story. It's entertaining, the characters are funny and adorable and fun to read about. The plot is surprising and with a lot of small foreshadow here and there that makes you smile- or frown in shock. The ending is the best part of the story- you'll see why.


Sincerely,
Nadine

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