Animals Books

Amelia's heart is in the right place. She truly adores animals, yet she can accent the emotions of communicating with them by intelligently and scientifically explaining how and why it happens.

This engaging and entertaining book will change the way you look at all animals - from your pets to the bugs that enter your home. It is heart-wrenching to realize the extent of the animals' emotions when you think how a good lot of them are treated by society in general.

Amelia cries out to the reader to join her in her mission to give a voice to those unheard. For anyone who wants to communicate with and understand animals, this battle cry will resonate with you and inspire you!

For anyone who loves animals and wants a closer bond with them, this is the book to read. Amelia Kinkade combines knowledge with humor to make this book a real page turner. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

The cover gives the impression this book is all about animals, and yes it is, however there is much more beneath it's cover. This book gives an insight into the nature of consciousness and how to work with it. Practical, scientific, mystical; it covers aspects of quantum physics as well as practical exercises to expand the mind. Good book for life learning in general. Communication with all species would be improved through your experience with this book. It was much more than I was expecting.

Well I heard Amelia Kinkade on coast to coast with George Nory and had to pick up this book. It is very insightful! The exercises are provided right away and at first they didn't seem to work for me so I let my kids try it out and Hey! My 7 year old daughter was able to channel several of our animals that had died 2-3 years ago including our horse "Taboo". If she could do then so could we; within two weeks my wife and two children were getting really good at communicating with very type of animal you could think of (mostly living animals, lol). I am determined that this works so I will continue working at it until I can catch up with my wife and daughters.

I liked the book, but I enjoyed Amelia Kinkade's other book (Straight from the Horses Mouth) way better. Straight from the Horses Mouth had more tools in learning to communicate with animals.

Scott Weidensaul writes precisely and eloquently about bird migration in "Living on the Wind", which was a nominated finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. In what is "perhaps the most compelling drama in all of natural history", an estimated 5 billion birds migrate annually, across continents and oceans, some without stopping to rest or eat for thousands of miles. Weidensaul tells us why birds migrate and how. He paints a picture of these extraordinary journeys and the birds that make them in North, Central, and South America. As some migrating birds are in crisis due to loss of habitat and disturbances in their breeding, stopover, and wintering grounds, the author examines the current threats to migrants and the controversies over their nature and significance.

In three parts -Southbound, Hiatus, and Northbound- "Living on the Wind" examines the journeys of migratory birds, regales us with incredible stories of a variety of species, and tells us where they go and how they live in their wintering grounds. Weidensaul has endured the cold of Monterey Bay, tromped through Jamaica's acacia forests, counted the massive migration through Veracruz with blistered thumb, banded hawks in Argentina, stood in the midst of a "fallout" near the Gulf coast, and generally traversed North and South America to see and understand migrants. He recounts his experiences with a wonder and drama that made me long to visit some of these places myself.

We also learn of birds that stay in their frigid climates, irruptive species that migrate only occasionally, birds who migrate south to wintry Vermont, and some species for whom habitat transformation has meant overpopulation, such as snow geese and Canada geese. I found especially fascinating the discussions of how migratory birds navigate, differences in the needs and fates of neotropical migrants and resident birds that co-exist in the same habitats, and the very preventable threats to migrants, such as feral cats. I was struck by how much has been learned about migrants in the past couple of decades through new technologies and broader study, but also by how difficult it is to pin down definitive data about these itinerant creatures. "Living on the Wind" is a treasure trove of information for birdlovers and thoroughly enjoyable for a general audience as well.

_Living on the Wind_ by Scott Weidensaul is a very ambitious book, one in which the author tried to convey both the science and the drama of bird migration in the Western Hemisphere, traveling for six years from Alaska to Argentina and speaking to experts as well as viewing close up an amazing variety of birds from the Arctic tundra to Central American rain forests.

The book is divided into three sections. "Southbound" focused on the fall migration as well as topics on migration in general.

Weidensaul stressed that one shouldn't view migration as moving away from something unpleasant, such as the cold, but rather as moving towards something beneficial, mainly an area where food is plentiful. Viewing migration as a simply north-south issue clearly shows a North American bias; birds in southern South America fly north to their wintering grounds, tropical birds fly relatively short distances but on migrations nonetheless in response to among other things the ripening of fruits or the blossoming of flowers, and many ocean birds undergo complex and intricate perambulations of entire oceans on an annual basis (the greater shearwater breeds in the South Atlantic but covers a 13,000 mile route every nine months, a route that includes going up past South America to Canada, then over to Europe in autumn, and then returning down the coast of Africa). Not all North American birds winter in the Americas; the bristle-thighed curlew nests in western Alaska but winters as much as 5,000 miles away in such Pacific islands as Tahiti, while the bar-tailed godwit winters 6,800 miles away from its Alaskan home in New Zealand (flying nonstop for up to five days).

The reader learns some birds are "complete migrants" (they entirely vacate their breeding grounds at the end of nesting season) and some are "partial migrants" (a portion of the population remains year-round). Most birds other than hawks migrate at night, partially to avoid predators (like hawks), to free up daytime hours for finding food, because the atmosphere is less turbulent at night, and because the chillier and damper night air can help cool overheated migrating birds and work to stem moisture loss. Thanks to human activity, many birds winter farther north than they once did, whether due to backyard birdfeeders in the case of finches or specially maintained refuges for waterfowl; this phenomenon is known as "shortstopping."

The author spent a good deal of time discussing how birds find their way on migrations. A fascinating discussion, migration involves a genetic program, a time of migratory restlessness when the daylight diminishes to a certain point and the urge to fly in a certain direction sets in, coupled in some species with a innate time-distance or time-and-direction (or vector navigation) program, a set of genetic instructions that instruct the bird to fly a certain direction for a specific length of time, change heading, and then precede on another for a preset period of time. Those directions are determined mainly by celestial and magnetic orientation but research has shown that infrasound (extremely low-frequency waves of the sort generated by ocean surf, which can travel for thousands of miles) may play a role as well.

Modifying this program though are a "hierarchy of orientation clues," which serve to refine a bird's navigation on subsequent flights, often enabling a bird to find specific breeding and wintering grounds with stunning accuracy. Clues such as learning geographic landmarks, olfactory, infrasound, and local magnetic clues help the migrating bird.

The second section, "Hiatus," focused on birds and their wintering grounds, from stay-at-home year-round resident birds alongside frozen Hudson Bay to birds of steamy rainforests and the Argentine pampas. Many birds like warblers and tanagers really are tropical birds to begin with; an oriole might spend four months in its temperate breeding range but seven months in the tropics, while some Canadian warblers spend less than three months there. Some birds migrate only as far south as southern Canada or the northern U.S. to winter. Others, such as the northern finches, follow an erratic and very unpredictable pattern of migration known as an irruption, a pattern tied to seed production in their normal range that in bad years may send birds as far south as the Gulf Coast.

The author discussed research on how faithful birds are to their wintering sites, debates over whether or not they are benefited by disturbed habitat, how flexible they are on their wintering grounds with regards to food and habitat, and how some species have completely different diets and habits on their wintering grounds (in some species the males and females will winter in different areas).

Threats to wintering birds were well discussed, covering such topics as the use of pesticides in Latin American countries (tens of thousands of Swainson's hawks have died from pesticides in Argentina), habitat destruction, changes in coffee-growing practices (shade-grown coffee plantations still have a great deal of habitat for birds but sun-coffee or technified farms are "biological deserts"), and disease (wetland destruction has forced waterfowl and shorebirds into overloaded federal and state refuges, what one researcher called "bird ghettos").

The third section, "Northbound," tracked the surge of migrants through the American Southwest, Great Plains, and the Gulf Coast. Topics of discussion often center on threats to migrating birds, including loss of hardwood forests along the Gulf Coast, a vital source of nutrients for migrating birds (increasingly usurped by industrialized pine plantations and beach homes), the loss of native grassland (a trend that is "nearly apocalyptic;" Iowa only has one-tenth of one percent left, while Minnesota has one percent left) which has caused grassland birds to decline faster, longer, and over a wider area than any other type, and the tremendous threats to breeding woodland birds due to forest fragmentation, opening up formerly deep woods to predators such as cats and also cowbirds, which are rapidly expanding their ranges and numbers and are a huge threat to eastern birds with no experience with brood parasites.

The detail and fluidity of this book amazes me. The author's passion for his love of birds shines through on every page. It's a work of love.

I didn't begin to "bird" until my days in New Jersey (2000-2004) when I'd drive to the beautiful Jersey Shore and watch water fowl and migratory eagles, falcons and osprey nest along the banks of the braggish waters. I've been fascinated by raptors ever since, and the chapter "River of Hawks" had me longing for more.

The author traveled all over North and South America, mixing in some travelogue with his more scientific paragraphs. His descriptions of Patagonia, AZ (p. 59) and Monterey, CA (p. 93) were right on target even for the non-birder.

The time he spent researching, traveling, meeting with locals is astounding. He traveled to Mexico, Argentinia, Alaska, Canada, Jamaica and various places within the United States to watch the birds himself.

The book ends on a melancholy note, citing the need to preserve and conserve what natural habitat we have left in the world, not just for our feathered friends, but for fish and humans. No work on nature would be complete without a passage of hope that natural nesting areas and a habitat free of toxins will prevail.

This book is a must-read. Like a few other reviewers have stated, my only recommendation would be perhaps a picture, even a black-white picture, of the many birds mentioned in this book.

If you enjoy nature reading you will love this book. I am not a birder, but nevertheless found this book to be an eloquent and fascinating read. Weidensaul introduces and explores a world that occurs around us every day but that few of us know anything about. He writes extremely well. Overall, a wonderful book.

The information on bird migration is absolutely engrossing. However, the language Weidensaul uses is even more enjoyable. I kept the computer dictionary next to me while reading the book to check the beautiful language used to describe bird behavior and their habitats. This book is inspiring and thought provoking even for non-birders like me (I am likely classified as a computer geek).

Marley is a great book about a dog. He is crazy but still very cute. He is not obedient at all and when he's in public he is very naughty. This book goes from the beginning of Marley's life to when he gets really old. Marley is a golden retriever. He is so big that everyone is scared of him. When anyone walks into the house Marley dashes up to them and jumps up on them. This book is so good I couldn't put it down. These are some of the reasons I liked the book:

1. The book has to do with animals being treated fairly and I like that.
2. It taught me how much a dog can connect with its owner. It was touching.
3. The book was thick but I couldn't get enough!

There is just one thing that made me sad. I won't tell you what it was but I will say that it was so sad I actually cried. I hope this review helps you decide if this book is for you or not.

(Review written by Tysha)

This book is excellent for dog lovers. It spans the gambit from laughter to tears. A MUST READ!

In this condensed version of John Grogan's best-selling Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog, the author has written an adapted version of his life and times with his Labrador Retriever, Marley, that's perfect for younger readers.

Having read and fully enjoyed Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog when it was first released, I was a little anxious to see how Mr. Grogan would handle a shorter, easier-to-read version for the middle-grade set. Fortunately, MARLEY: A DOG LIKE NO OTHER is a fun, vibrant, and compelling read that even older elementary school students will enjoy.

When John and his wife, Jenny, first pick Marley out from a litter of pure-blood Labradors, they have no idea that their small bundle of fur with the big paws and blocky head will eventually turn into a 97-pound drool-machine full of nerves, excitement, and limitless energy. This short story (196 pages) is a testament to the trials, tribulations, and ultimate loyalty of a dog who ended up starring in a feature film.

Marley is the type of dog that you love, despite his flaws (and there are many!), and even the youngest of readers will be overjoyed to read about the trouble that he finds himself in on a daily basis. And, I admit, I shed a few tears towards the end of this book, but they were well worth it, because Marley was worth it.

One great benefit of this version of Marley's story are the numerous full-color photographs that the author has included. This addition alone makes MARLEY: A DOG LIKE NO OTHER an asset to your home library.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"

Loved the book --it made me laugh, smile, cry. I bought three -- two were gifts and one for myself, which I also loaned to all my dog loving friends.

Purchased as a gift. Have received good feed-back from the recipient, who, by the way, is a Marley fan.

Though I am not totally vegan yet, I have been working my way towards a more plant centered diet. I remembered seeing really great looking recipes in this book and decided to order it. It's a shame this is out of print and hasn't gotten more attention. One thing I needed help with is that I have a huge sweet tooth but can't tolerate any type of sugar. The dessert recipes in this book all use natural sweeteners ilke fruit juice concentrate and maple syrup. They also have no saturated fat. The Caramel Apple Crunch is simply amazing, it tastes just as rich and delicious as the apple crisp mom used to make. But with none of the butter or refined sugar. It calls for Fruitsource, which is no longer available, but I use a product called FruitSweet. The carrot cake is also wonderful,it used an interesting blenderized mix of sweetener, orange zest, oil and raisins to create a really terrific flavor. For Christmas, I made the pecan pie and the apple-cranberry bread pudding, both got raves. I want to try more of the savory recipes now, but only gave four stars due to the savory results so far: the broccoli soup was fair, kind of bland, and the cornbread was really dry and not good. Overall though, an interesting read with a lot of great recipes. Jia Patton should put out her own cookbook.

This is the first book on becoming vegan and the first vegan cookbook I ever bought. I'll be needing a new one soon, as the one I have now (second copy) is getting too dog-eared and stained to read. Robbins concisely presents every reason for becoming vegan, and backs them all up with extensive, useful footnotes. And the recipes are just plain delicious! The Mexican Black Bean Dip & Eggplant, Vegetable & Tahini Spread are addictive. The Caramel Apple Crunch makes a cold, sad day all better. The Plum Cobbler is just the thing to make when Italian prune plums are in season. The only sad thing is that he lives in Santa Cruz & I don't, so the delicious recipes focusing on what is in season don't work as well for me as for him.

I loved the hints and tips for mainting a cupboard and kitchen, and the nice recipes that I have been using/modifying for my own use. The information in the beginning is nice, too, although mostly a reprint of Diet for a New America.

The updated sections on fish and milk were very interesting, however, especially fish, which is touted today as a wonder-food for older people hoping to live longer. Many fish today arrive at your supermarkets having previously been mold-contaminated from sitting out in the open too long, and many contain high concentrations of Mercury, which also has been documented in a recent Reader's Digest article.

Just like what Marianne Williamson said on the front cover of this book: "I hope everyone reads this book!"

Diet for a New World will make you think twice about your next meal. Robbins offers real solutions to third world issues. When we consume meat, the crops were grown in abundance in a third world or extremely poor country, then it was exported to a meat farm to feed the cattle. Robbins explains that the grain used to feed the cattle could have fed the starving population of the growers and us as well.

Some of this book is difficult to read because it makes us take a serious look and the way live, eat and purchase everyday items. I'm glad I did- it changed my life.

Becoming vegetarian or vegan is only part of the solution. Buy the book, read it, practice it, bring veg dishes to gatherings and share what you know. Buy the book as a gift too, that's how I got it.

I realize we have One Earth and One Chance- let's make it count. John Robbins can get you started on the right path.

Wonder what one person CAN DO to improve not only your own life but that of the entire planet? Read this book. It is filled with understandable information that can radically change your health, the health of the planet itself and give the opportunity for life to others as well. This book has changed my life...so much so that, after reading the library's copy, I am buying one.

I bought this book for my son, and he LOVES it. It has so much information and great pictures it keeps him busy for hours!

See all my reviews of dinosaur books.

"National Geographic Dinosaurs" is aimed perfectly at the new student (aged 8-12). It's illustrations are vivid and the information is well-pitched.

At almost 200 pages in length, there are thicker books. However, with 120 pages dedicated to dinosaur profiles, there are enough dinosaurs to satisfy the new student.

Typically, there are a series of chapters that provide a context, followed by the dinosaur profiles. "Nat Geo Dinosaurs" contextual chapters include 'What is a Dinosaur?'; 'The Age of the Dinosaurs' - info on the Mesezoic era and other creatures - marine and flying; 'Dinosaur Sites'- key fossil sites; 'Discovering Dinosaurs'; 'Reconstructing Dinosaurs'; 'Dinosaur biology and behaviour'; 'How they Lived' - maternal instincts, hunting and fighting, arms and armor, diet, size and weight, movement; 'Classification' with flowcharts. Overall, these chapters hold-up reasonably well with other similar books, especially the classification pages. After the profiles there are chapters on extinction and dinosaur films.

The book then goes into genus profiles (usually of one page per dinosaur, sometimes two) of the bird-hipped dinosaurs for 50 pages then the lizard-hipped dinosaurs for another 60 pages. Each of these pages contains a Fact File with a grid showing the size of the dinosaur against a 6 foot man. Included in the Fact File is: Genus; Classification; Length; Weight; (When it) Lived; and where it was found (with a world map). Also included is a colour illustration of the dinosaur in a profile pose. The information is generally 3 to 4 paragraphs long and is very basic science. Normally there is information on distinguishing features and some comparison with cousins. Unfortunately, single dinosaurs are not covered in detail; it is only the genus - so if you are looking on the Tyrannosaurus page, you wont find anything on each of the tyrannosaurs (like Albertosaurus or Tarbosaurus). What you get is pretty much T.rex disguised as a generalised tyrannosaur.

Where I really think the book falls down is in it's interpretations of dinosaur behaviour and adaptations. There is quite a lot of information presented as fact when it is pure speculation. Also, there isn't any balance in arguments. For example, the profile on Carnotaurus states when mentioning its short snout 'that it could have got twisted and bent, particularly in struggles with large animals' suggsting that 'Cartnotaurus did not often attack animals of the same size or larger than itself, as its skull could not withstand such forces'. This is only providing one side of the argument (and the weaker side at that). There is currently strong debate about the diet of Carnotaurus due to the argument of how strong its jaws actually were, and whether it hunted in packs. I prefer information that is more balanced like the more accurate "The Kingfisher Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia" by David Burnie. The information in "Nat Geo Dinosaur", however, is way more realistic than Gee and Rays "A Field Guide to Dinosaurs", but not as adequate as Parker's "Dinosaurus" which has individual species profiled.

On the positive side is the artwork of Raul Martin. I love habitat illustrations of dinosaurs that paint a vivid picture of life in the Mesozoic. And there is no better illustrator. As one other reviewer wrote, it is unfortunate that a number of his illustrations appear over two pages, but with 30 of these wonderful pictures on show, it is definately a plus for this book.

Overall, this is one of the best books for new students. It is easier to compare dinosaurs with each other size-wise and genealogy-wise compared with "Dinosaurus". Its illustrations are second to none and its information on dinosaurs is adequate. I do recommend "The Kingfisher Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia" by David Burnie over this book, but if you are going to buy two - this is certainly the second choice.

We bought this for my five year old nephew who LOVES dinosaurs. He can read pretty well on his own and has enjoyed flipping through this book, reading and looking at the pictures. My husband also thought this book was awesome and wished he had had more time before Christmas to read this book before wrapping it up for our nephew!

I bought this for my grandchildren for Christmas and they loved looking through it. Beautiful pic's and fun to read together.

Like many other people, I am intrigued by the dinosaurs as well as other
citizens of the "Middle Life" mesozoic era. The book is divided into two sections. The first is general and discusses such areas as what the dinosaurs were, when they lived, what their environment was like and how they related to each other. The other portion deals with a large number of different dinosaur families, from the tiny musasauras(mouse lizard) to the gigantic seismosaurus, which was up to 160 feet long!The specific descriptions provide such information as when they lived, where they were found, and their size(Many times with a dinosaur/human comparison shown!).

Since the National Geographic Society has been a major sponsor of dinosaur research and expeditions, the photographs and technical details are excellent. The artwork by Raul Martin fleshes out the bones and reconstructions to provide insight into what these ancient citizens of earth would have looked like when they were alive and roaming freely.

I reccomend this book for all dinosaur fans from the five year old
on his or her first trip to the Museum to the "fossiles" like me who use their vacations to volunteer and help out on digs!

I wanted to have this book ever since I saw it: because I wouldve been there to help these people to help rescue all these animals if I could from day one.The photos in this book tell the story so well, its amazingly beautiful,tears have rolled down my eyes every time I watch these amazing pictures.Its the story of what unconditional love can acomplish when you let it happen.There are thousand of moving stories,the one of "dog in boat" was incredible, and the one of the big white dog that recovered that has her picture on the cover.But to me, my very favourite story of all, because I have a soft spot for Pit Bulls and the fact they are often extremely misunderstood by people, is the story of the Pit Bull couple who where together on top of a car hood, and when they spotted the little boat with the people, the male jumped into the water and started swimming towards them.That is my very favourite photo+special story.I vividly recommend this book to everyone, its a jewel!

This is one of the animal books that has touched my heart deeply. Imagine being a pet, dependent on your owner for basic survival, and then suddenly having no one there to protect, feed, care and nurture you. Imagine this going on for days, with no end in sight. That's what these animals went through. Many of these owners didn't realize how Hurricane Katrina would tear into their lives taking everything away from them including their precious pets. Happily, many of these animals were reunited with their owners again, and for those that weren't, "Best Friends" took care of them. However, these animals were desperate.

Whenever I read about the 2 pit bulls trapped on the rooftop of a submerged car my eyes tear up. Who knows how long these 2 dogs were trapped on that roof, but when the one dog spotted the rescuers--who were in a rowboat due to the flooded streets--he was so desperate by then that he jumped into the water and swam the distance to the boat...which was quite a ways from his rooftop... he swam up to the boat, looked into the eyes of the photographer and just begged to be plucked out of the water, rescued and loved. He didn't even wait for them to get to him, he swam across the water just to get to them. I tear up everytime I think about that pitbull's desperation and feeling of abandonment.

Anyway, read the book. And I have to say that Best Friends is one of best organizations I've ever heard of. They do so much on behalf of animals and they are just a wonderful, wonderful organization. Buy the book and visit www.bestfriends.org! It can be a great coffee table book too.

Memories of when people come together to help those in need, no matter how many legs they have. It's great to see the results of human compassion.

Troy Snow and the Best Friends Animal Society, Not Left Behind: Rescuing the Pets of New Orleans (Yorkville Press, 2006)

After Katrina hit, thousands upon thousands were forced to flee New Orleans and leave their pets behind. (The prevailing attitude of "we'll only be gone a few days, we'll leave a big bowl of food and some extra water" is reiterated here.) As the military worked on trying to get the city back into habitable condition and rescue any surviving people in the city, the best Friends Animal Society went to work trying to rescue the pets. Troy Snow, the group's photographer, documented the weeks they spent outside New Orleans, boating into the city every day to rescue animals that had been trapped by the flood. These are not happy fluffy bunny animal pictures, folks. If you prefer to think of your pooches as gamboling in the breeze, you might want to avoid this one. But Snow's pictures capture the dogged (pardon the pun) determination and will to live of the animals, and are a fitting tribute to their ability to survive. ****

Having worked at the sanctuary in Tylertown, MS where many of these animals were taken after the rescues documented in these extraordinary photographs, this book helps one vividly see what so many of these animals went through after the hurricane and before they arrived at our base camp. More can be said by these photos that captured how these beasts survived the days, weeks and sometimes months after Hurricane Katrina, than any written text can state.

I was also pleased to see that one of the dogs we cared for in the Back 40 in Tylertown whom we named "Piglet" turned out to be the covergirl on this book! She was always so happy to see us when we'd approach her kennel and loved to have suntan lotion rubbed all over her belly -- it is really something to see her story in detail before she came to us at Tylertown. The happy ending is that she was adopted by a family and now has a very happy forever home. :)

This book received many great reviews in education journals. My students love this book and it is very popular. I highly recommend it - who can pass up this puppy?

We saw this book featured on our local news station's "Success by 6" children's reading program and loved it! I ordered it as a gift for my two year-old niece but had a very hard time parting with it when it came. The illustrations are fabulous, the accompanying "stories" are charming, anyone who loves dogs will thoroughly enjoy this book. It exceeded my expectations.

My daughter and I are beginning our forever-long study of poetry and I found this unexpected and beautiful book about dogs (her favorite animal). The language and style of Once I Ate a Pie flows with such an obvious love and mastery of word usage and consideration of subject. The poems are blank verse but the word choice is juicy and deliberate. Really stunning paintings compliment each piece. I found myself brought to tears at least twice and really humbled by the talent of the authors.

** If you happen to check it out, Mr. Beefy is my favorite ;).

This is my grandson's favorite book. Is wonderful and a lot of fun. He has always had Pugs.

This book makes me feel like a kid at heart. It's great fun to read it giving each animal it's own voice since you can really sense the different personalities from each drawing and story. I also think it's a good lesson for children because, let's face it, some of these dogs are totally neurotic! I think it's a good way to show kids that everyone, including animals, have their own little personalities and behaviors and some of them are a little odd!

Helen Lester has such a wonderful way of writing for children. The illustrations by Lyn M. Munsinger are so captivating that children want to see them again and again. So do adults!
This book teaches us all to accept ourselves for who we are. Trying to be someone we are not just doesn't work.

I don't have any kids, but this book has actually been around for a long time. I was born in 82, and this book was by far my favorite. The illustrations are great and the message is even better. It's a really witty way to tell children that labels don't matter. The illustrations also make the book even better, my personal favorite as a child being when Fluffy sticks marshmallows all over his quills to make himself more fluffy.

I bought this book because I'm going to school to become a teacher. It teaches kids that it is ok to be your self. Kids will laugh and so will parents.

This book is very appealing to me and my two kids (ages 2 and 5). The illustrations are wonderful, and it is very well written. The kids laugh as we turn the pages, and it is a book that reads well over and over.

I bought this for my three year old daughter...again based on reviews on amazon. Other reviewers were right: this book is a hoot. Everytime we get to: "H...H...H...H...H...Hippo" my daughter bursts out laughing. Highly recommended. Great illustrations set off the writing.

Monty is an insecure rat, insecure because he and his family live in a sewer and create works of art, which is frowned on by the higher class society of wharf rats. Additionally he shares his name with his Uncle Moony, a drunken creator of decorated rings, which shames him because of the derision of the other rats. An interest in the pretty Isabel and a crisis helps him to overcome his insecurity and his shame. I bought this book because I'd just acquired 2 pet rats, and ended up hooked on Tor Seidler. He truly cares about his characters, and while the stories are for children, they aren't childish. Adults with a little imagination will enjoy his animal stories as much as the kids do.

I read this when I was at a friend's house with nothing else to read (it took me an hour or two; I suspect it would take a child a bit more time). It is a cute, amusing book- definitely a nice present for children above the age of, say, 7 or 8. I had no problems suspending disbelief in the talking rats; however, I have to admit I did have trouble suspending disbelief in the rat/human interrelationships (e.g. humans being smart enough to realize the rats were bribing them when they saw large amounts of money intermingled with the remains of poisoned rats).

? Montague Mad-Rat is a young rodent with a strange family: his mother dyes bird feathers with berry juices and creates fanciful hats; his father is working on his hundred-and-seventh mud castle; and his aunt travels the world on cruise ships. His namesake uncle crafts tiny gold rings that he sells to humans. Montague has his own craft: painting exquisite miniatures on tiny shells his aunt brings him. His real adventures begin when he meets and falls in love with the rich and beautiful Isabel Moberly-Rat, whose friends and family are wharf rats who look down upon rats like Montague who make things with their paws. Montague gets involved with a campaign to save the wharf rats from extermination by a new property owner, and comes to appreciate his family and himself for who they are.

This book is absolutely charming. The setting-Central Park, Columbus Circle, and the New York docks-is just right. Seidler has managed to make his rat story romantic, funny, suspenseful, and insightful in its observations of class snobbery.

One element that serves to make this book so successful is Seidler's playful use of language to maintain the fantasy element and to help draw character. The world of the novel is always seen from the rats' point of view. For instance, when the lovely Isabel Moberly-Rat is caught in a rainstorm, she mutters "Oh, people" under her breath, rather than "Oh, rats." The rats don't go for a walk; they go for a "creep." They attend a gathering called the "Great Rat Chat," which is the "backbone of a democratsy," attended by cabinet ministers who are great helpers of "ratkind." When the haughty young Randal Reese-Rat gets a spot of poison on his tail, his parents call in a "general ratitioner." These are just a few of the numerous examples throughout the text. They serve to maintain the illusion that the rat world has its own society, yet one that is eerily reminiscent of our human world. Mrs. Moberly-Rat is a terrible snob, as are most of her fellow wharf rats living in fancy high-rise crates. She is struggling with her weight, and does "petal arrangements" to keep her mind off cheese. However, every time we see her she is eating or serving a different variety, from blue to Swiss to Gruyere. She looks down upon the Mad-Rats because they make things with their paws, marry their cousins, do business with people, and worst of all, live in "S-E-W-E-R-S." Her husband, Hugh Moberly-Rat, has a fancy office with a gilt-edged dictionary for a desk and silver foil gum wrapper wallpaper. Seidler does a clever thing with the speeches that Hugh makes: he repeats every thought in different words, making him even more long-winded than most human politicians. Thus, "How so, you ask," is followed immediately by, "Why, you want to know?" Sometimes he does it in single sentences: " For more deaths, I fear, lurk in the near future-await us in the coming days." It's really quite a comical effect, and is typical of the artificial language that many politicians use in public-and is not the way Hugh speaks in private, either.

All in all, A Rat's Tale is a lovely book that works on several levels, from the story of an unlikely hero to commentary on class prejudice. The black-and-white illustrations are a charming complement to the text. One can't help agreeing with Newsday's comment: "A Rat's Tale may well do for rats what Charlotte's Web has done for spiders."

I just adore this book. I am a massive rat lover and have 8 rats...and this book is a pleasant and innocent page turner...

You will love it!

A Rat's Tale is about a young rat named Montague Mad-Rat, or Monty. He lives a boring, solitary existence in the sewers of New York City. His family is almost considered a bunch of criminals, as they've broken almost every major rule of society, like making things with their own paws. Rats should scavenge for things they need, not make them. But nevertheless, his mother makes hats out of feathers, and his father makes sand castles. Neither of them have much time for him. He is very lonely and bored. The only things he has to do is gather feathers and berries for his mother's hats, and paint the seashells his aunt brings him. Then, one day, he meets the girl of his dreams! Her name is Isabella. She is the daughter of the governor of the rats, and she lives in old abandoned Wharf 62, where only the rats of the highest-class live. He can't stop thinking about her! Then he realizes that a rich, sophisticated girl like her could never love a sewer rat like him.
Meanwhile, the humans want to poison the wharves. The rats had stopped them every year by finding loose change and anonomysly offering it to the owner of the wharves. Every year they had collected $10,000. And every year, it had been enough. but this year it wasn't. So their leader (Isabella's Father) decides that they need to double the Rat-Rent (as they call it). But there's no way they can gather $20,000 worth of pennies, dimes and nickels! Then, Monty figures out a way to impress Isabella. He thought the shells his aunt had brought him might be of some value. After all, everyone said they were great. So he brings the shells to Isabella's father. He says they are great, but they need money, not shells. Dismayed, Monty tells Isabella's father to keep the shells. Isabella gets a90=hold of them, and at first she just hangs the shells on her bedroom wall. But then she has a great idea. her mother told her that Montague Mad-Rat (Monty's uncle whom he was named after) was infamous for doing the unthinkable--dealing with humans (it's like making things with your own paws). He, like Monty is also an artist. He decorates rings and sells them to an art dealer. Isabella decides to team up with him to sell the shells. She knows that dealing with humans is a huge disgrace, but she'll do anything to save her beloved wharves. Together, they are able to get $20,000!
Monty is hailed a hero! His little shells saved the wharves! Monty finally got everything he wanted. He saved the wharves, he's a hero, and Isabella finally likes him. Then the worst happens. What is that? You'll just have to read the book for yourself.
Monty significantly changes. He becomes much braver and he learns to do his best and try his hardest, even when things look hopeless.
This is a great book, and I recommend it to anyone age 9 and up.

My son loves this book so much that when it started falling apart, I bought another one! He asks for this book every night. Highly recommend!!

This book is beautifully illustrated. The vibrant colors invited my students to be actively engaged while we were reading it together. The rhyme scheme of the book made my students laugh and learn at the same time. Humor is always a good way to learn. I would reccomend this book to anyone.

This book has been a favorite in our home since we got it over 8 years ago. The pictures are beautiful and fun. The rhymes are great. It is one of the few books that I do not tire of reading over and over and over again to the kiddos.

Only draw-back is that it is permanately stuck in my head. Can't go to the zoo without finding myself saying the rhymes. Oh, who am I kidding, that's not a draw-back...it is kinda fun! hee hee

This book has been loved by all of my children, every one of my children old enough to talk have this book memorized.

This is such a cute book. Bright and colorful pictures to look at, with a story that isn't too repetitive. Readers will not mind reading time and again to children