Cool book, about rats, but rats! no photos, but alot of drawings, and
ratty information.

Did you know that rats can be flushed down a toilet a live? Did you know that rats sometimes fish with their tails? Did you know that a pair of rats could have 359 million descendants in 3 years? Learn these fun facts and many, many more in Albert Marrin's book Oh, Rats!

Illustrations in black, white, and crimson decorate the book and sidebars on nearly every page provide additional fun facts. Although I do like the illustrations, they were a bit distracting because the full-page pictures do not have labels and sometimes I couldn't figure out what they were supposed to be illustrating.

Mr. Marrin provides a bibliography at the end, as well as a short list of recommended reading. The neat thing is that he also includes a list of fictional books that feature rats as (good or evil) characters. I guess I was left wanting a little more from his bibliography and I wish he had included an author's note. But I will say that it's a greatly entertaining book and likely to appeal to kids.

Humans and rats have been living together for thousands of years. Marrin explains the complications of humans’ relationship with rats, and provides background information on rats.
Oh, Rats! is chock full of information about rats. Marrin begins by describing his first encounter with a rat, explains where rats came from, their behaviors, and finally how rats and humans interact. Marrin writes in a narrative style about each topic in separate chapters and each page includes inset boxes with additional interesting facts about rats. The facts run from interesting (“The Biggest Rodent of All”) to humorous (“White House Rats”). I learned a lot I didn’t know about rats. They are actually very clean, and bathe themselves everyday. Marrin provides a chapter entitled “Yummy Rats” profiling different cultures’ uses of rats as food. He is very respectful of his treatment of the other cultures, and even goes so far as to explain the benefits of eating rat meat. Marrin explains that humans can eat rat meat, but it is our preconceived cultural beliefs about rats that make us think rats are disgusting. To authenticate his work, Marrin provides a bibliography, as well as a list of suggested further reading on rats. Oh, Rats! is illustrated by C. B Mordan, using the color scheme of black, white, red. The red provides a nice contrast to the black and white scratchboard illustrations. The book is fairly short (48 pages) and would be appropriate for younger readers, as well as any reader seeking information about rats.

This work is an informational text which includes many pictures and is geared toward children. It discusses the anatomy and behaviors of rats, as well as the relationship that rats have developed with humans over their existence on this earth. In his writing, Marrin has a great example of voice, one of the six traits of writing as set forth by Vicki Spandel. He is concise, lively, and in-depth with his text. Students often assume that just because writing is informational, it must also be monotonous and void of a strong voice. They would be able to use this work as a model of how to be engaging when crafting nonfiction. For a writing activity, students could use Oh Rats! as a mentor text to examine the relationships between humans and other things. Using Kelly Gallagher’s “How Does __________ Influence People’s Behavior?” students would choose a topic, research it, and write a response to the question. They would then repeat the process, examining the question “How Do People Influence _________’s Behavior?” This would allow them to consider reciprocal relationships and multiple points of view, and also to practice writing informational texts in a stimulating voice.

As disgusting as this might be to say, rats aren't that bad once you learn about them. They actually are respectable and intelligent creatures. For instance, rats take care of their sick, crippled, maimed, etc. instead of leaving them to struggle and die. I'm not sure we can say the same as a species.

Fascinating book about rats!

This was a rather interesting and informative read. It kind of gave me the heebie jeebies which is strange because I used to have pet rats...

I never thought that I'd read and enjoy a book about rats. This middle grade nonfiction book is for rat lovers and skeptics. This nonfiction narrative touches on the scientific name and species of rat, as well as how rats became so populous, spread diseases, and the legends (like the Pied Piper of Hamlin) that have portrayed rats as menaces to society for many generations. After reading this book, I have a better understanding and appreciation of the three-headed Rat King in the Nutcracker ballet.

After I finished I lent the book to my sixth grade niece who finished it in a day and remarked, "I liked it." She generally only reads manga, so this was quite the rave review coming from her.

I recommend this book to 3rd-6th graders.

so oh rats by Albert is a very odd book but a dent read none the less l think it was a good read personally l never like rats cant stand them like at all but after reading oh rats l grown a systematic and nicer attitude towards them l am no rat lover far boned that but grown a a rotate towards them but l found leaning about theses rat kinda of insetting not gonna lie about that part and it is good that theses animal are shown a different light than the people likes to give them

of these monsters that can get in your house again not a rat lover but l will stand them along as they dont eat my food get in my clothed or find there way into my bedroom at all than we cool l would remolded this book to any rat lover or someone that is interested in rats at all or just some fun but inserting fun light reading on the rats thought out human history dealing with these guys would Redmond to at least 4 to maybe 5 grades at most or to just anyone that want a short but fun light heated book to read on there off day

An interesting book about the aspects of rats - I learned a lot. :) Read it if you want to know about rats too.

Very effective non-fiction writing. Lots of mentor text passages here, especially for paragraph development.

This book got off to a great start with a description of the author as a boy of 7 discovering a rat at his father's construction site, causing him to take off running-- through wet concrete. What an image that creates. That spurred his interest in rats.
There are interesting sidelights on almost every spread, although I sometimes found the woodcarving illustrations that accompanying them to be a little muddied.
The author does a great job of including interesting facts, and I can't help but look around, not really in fear, but not really happy that I might see a rat! I learned some new vocabulary words, including "thigmophilic" or touch-loving (gives me the creeps). Among many other things, I learned that they can survive being flushed down a toilet, not that I ever hope to have to do that, even though the author says that they are not really dirty animals. And, who knew that rats could fish? The numbers of people killed due to the plague is imcomprehensible. I didn't know that rats are used to help detect land mines, TB, and other things.

I think this book will be of interest to students, and I plan to get it for our library.