The+Amazing+Maurice+and+His+Educated+Rodents


 * Title**

**Summary/Review**
This story is about a young boy, a cat, and a collection of rats who go from town to town conning the villagers with a Pied Piper routine. Maurice, the cat, is the brains behind the operation, the rats the talent, and the young boy the front. Oh, did I fail to mention that due to devouring magical laced food the rats (with names like Dangerous Beans, Hamnpork, and Darktan) and Maurice are now sentient and capable of speech? With their new found abilities they have made quite the score and due to the developing consciences of the rats they plan one last con in the town of Bad Blintz. Little do the creatures realize there is an incredibly dark and powerful force at work in this town, and the rats who are beginning to question their existence and their purpose in life are fighting to find out who they really are. Eventually, Maurice and the Rats conquer the evil force and save the town from certain doom. Once the town realizes they have talking animals in there city, they come to the conclusion to make a deal and the rats live along with the people of Bad Blintz.

Overall, this is an extremely amusing tale that raises some important issues about life in general. If it is okay for humans to eat animals because they aren't capable of speech, what are we here for, should we follow the teachings of a book, and etc. The characters are extremely funny and there is quite a bit of commentary on other adventure tales that are used to map out a bit of this story.

**Author Bio**
Terry Pratchett was born in England in the year 1948. Pratchett is currently the 2nd most read writer in England and is the 7th overall non American read-writer in the US. He worked for awhile as a journalist, in fact, out of school when he was 17 he took up his first job as a journalist. From that point he began his writing of novels and most everything he had publish was a big hit.

In February 2009 he was knighted by the Queen of England, and because he is a super dork he ended up digging up a chunk of iron. With the iron he ended up getting a bunch of friends and people to help him make his own sword after the knighting. He is also married, and has been married since 1968, and has a daughter named Rhianna who was born in 1976.

Most recently Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimers and has been dwinding away since then. He has been making some documentary videos with BBC to examine the detioration of his disease and hopefully raise awareness and donations to help cure/fix the disease of Alzheimers.

**Other Works**
//I Shall Wear Midnight, Wintersmith, A Hat Full of Sky, The Wee Free Men: The beginning, The Illustrated Wee Free Men: A Story of Discworld, Nation, Only You Can Save Mankind, Johnny and the Dead, Johnny and the Bomb, The Bromeliad Trilogy: Truckers, The Bromeliad Triology: Diggers, The Bromeliad Trilogy: Wings//

**Awards**
Won the 2001[| Carnegie Medal]for best children's novel.

**Historical Context**
The historical context of this book can be seen in the exploration of the Pied Piper tale. It also goes a bit into a philosphical questioning that might be a representation of what the human mind went through as it came to grips with itself.

**Major Themes**
Philosophy, Life, Adventure, Fairytales, Government, Good vs Evil, Magic, Pied Piper

**Cited Works**
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