The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents facts for kids
First edition
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| Author | Terry Pratchett |
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| Cover artist | David Wyatt |
| Language | English |
| Series | Discworld 28th novel – 5th individual story |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
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Publication date
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1 November 2001 |
| Awards | Winner of the 2001 Carnegie Medal. |
| ISBN | 0-385-60123-9 (hardcover) |
| Preceded by | The Last Hero |
| Followed by | Night Watch |
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is an exciting fantasy novel for children. It was written by the British author Terry Pratchett and published in 2001. This book is the 28th story in his famous Discworld series, but it was the first one he wrote especially for younger readers.
The story is a clever new version of the old German fairy tale about the Pied Piper of Hamelin. It also makes fun of traditional folk tales in a playful way. Terry Pratchett won the important Carnegie Medal for this book in 2001. This award is given by British librarians for the best children's book published in the U.K. It was his very first major award!
Contents
About the Book Series
The Discworld series started in 1983 with The Colour of Magic. These books were mostly for adults and were known for their funny fantasy stories. The Amazing Maurice was released as a children's book. After this, other Discworld books for children followed, like The Wee Free Men (2003).
Even though this book was sold for children, many teenagers also loved Terry Pratchett's books. They enjoyed his amazing ideas and his sense of humor. Maurice and his educated rodents were actually mentioned in an earlier Discworld book called Reaper Man in 1991. So, they weren't completely new characters!
What Happens in the Story
The book begins with a special group traveling to a small town called Bad Blintz. This group includes Maurice, a smart cat who can think and talk. He travels with a group of talking rats, known as the Clan. A human boy named Keith is also with them.
Their plan is a trick they've used many times. The rats pretend to cause a huge problem in the town. Then, Keith acts like a rat piper who can magically lead the "pests" away. For this, they get paid a small amount of money. Maurice thinks this trick is fine, but the talking rats feel it's wrong. They convince Maurice that Bad Blintz will be the last town they trick.
When they arrive, the townspeople are already worried about a big rat problem. They've spent a lot of money on two rat catchers. But even with the rat catchers, food keeps disappearing. The Clan rats go underground and find many rat traps. However, they don't see any live keekees. Keekees are regular rats who can't talk or think like the Clan.
Above ground, Maurice notices strange things too. He sees that many of the rat tails the rat catchers show as proof are actually shoelaces. Maurice and Keith soon meet Malicia, the mayor's daughter. They introduce her to the amazing talking rats.
Malicia suspects the rat catchers are hiding something. So, she, Maurice, and Keith sneak into the rat catchers' hut. Inside, they find a lot of stolen food. They also discover large cages where local keekees are being raised for cruel rat fights. The rat catchers return and lock up Malicia and Keith. They also capture Hamnpork, the leader of the Clan rats, who had met up with them.
Maurice hides and feels a scary voice trying to get into his mind. It fills him with great fear. The Clan rats feel it too, and many become so scared they almost forget how to think. Dangerous Beans, who is the rats' spiritual leader, feels heartbroken. He thinks the rats are just mindless animals deep down. He leaves with his helper, Peaches.
Darktan, the rats' expert at dealing with traps, leads a group to save Hamnpork. He almost dies in a trap but succeeds in rescuing him. Sadly, Hamnpork dies from injuries he got while fighting in the rat pit. Darktan, even though he doesn't want to, becomes the new leader of the Clan.
Malicia and Keith manage to escape. They trick the rat catchers into admitting their crimes. The rat catchers had created a powerful rat king named Spider. Spider is the source of the mysterious voice that has been scaring the rats and Maurice. Using its mind control over the rat catchers, Spider plans to start a war against the humans who created it. It sends the rats it controls to attack Maurice, Peaches, and Dangerous Beans.
However, Maurice is so terrified that he stops thinking and acts on instinct. He jumps on the rat king and destroys it. Maurice comes out of Spider's chamber carrying the body of Dangerous Beans. Once he is safe, he collapses and dies. In a ghostly form, he sees the Bone Rat coming for Dangerous Beans. Maurice then makes a deal with Death, a character who often appears in Discworld stories. He trades two of his remaining lives to save both his own life and the albino rat's.
The Clan rats gather all the keekees and block their ears. When the real rat piper arrives in town, Keith challenges him to a contest. The piper plays his "magic" rat pipe, but none of the rats come out. Then Keith plays a trombone, and Sardines, a smart rat, comes out and dances for everyone. Keith is declared the winner! He then leads the keekees out of town with the piper.
After the piper leaves, the Clan rats come out of hiding. They tell the humans about the rat catchers' trickery. The humans make a deal with the rats: if the Clan keeps the keekees out of town, the talking rats can stay and live like smaller humans. Keith decides to stay in Bad Blintz as the town's special rat piper. Maurice, however, moves on to find a new adventure.
Main Characters
- Maurice – He is a very smart cat who leads the group of rats. Maurice is clever and sometimes a bit tricky. He understands how the world works, but he can be cynical. Later in the book, he feels guilty because he accidentally ate one of the intelligent rats early on. That's how he became able to think and talk.
- Malicia – She is the daughter of Bad Blintz's mayor. Malicia loves fairy tales, going on adventures, and telling stories.
- Keith – People call him the "stupid-looking kid." Keith is an orphan who grew up with the Musician's Guild. He joins Maurice's plan mostly because he wants something to do. He is very protective of his rat friends.
- Dangerous Beans – An albino (white) rat who acts as a spiritual leader for the Clan. The rats became intelligent after eating rubbish from behind Unseen University. Dangerous Beans is like the Clan's philosopher. He helps them understand difficult ideas, like rat cannibalism, stealing, and dreaming. He also explains their "bible," a children's book called Mr Bunnsy Has An Adventure. This book shows rats and other animals living happily with humans. When Malicia says the book's perfect world isn't real, Dangerous Beans and Peaches run off feeling sad.
- Peaches – A small female rat who helps Dangerous Beans. She is also the Clan's scribe, meaning she writes things down.
- Hamnpork – The old leader of the Clan from before they could think. Hamnpork doesn't like the idea of "thinking." He leads the Clan using the strength and cleverness that normal kee kee rat leaders use.
- Darktan – He leads the rats' Trap Disposal Squad. After almost dying and Hamnpork's death, Darktan becomes the Clan's new leader. Darktan is older but more open to new ideas than Hamnpork. All the rats respect him because his knowledge of traps keeps them safe.
- Sardines – An older rat who wears a hat and tap dances. Sardines is great at pretending the town has a big rat problem. He doesn't want to be a leader, but he gives helpful advice to Darktan. He understands both humans and rats very well and can influence them kindly.
Awards and Praise
Karen Usher, who led the Carnegie judges, said that everyone on the panel agreed on the winner. She called The Amazing Maurice an "outstanding work of literary excellence." She said it was a "brilliant twist" on the Pied Piper story. She also noted that it was funny and disrespectful in a good way, but also had a serious and rebellious side.
Winning the Carnegie Medal for Maurice was Terry Pratchett's first big award. Some people in the British literary world had not always appreciated his books before this. When he accepted the award, he spoke about how his work dealt with deep ideas. He mentioned that if you "stick in one lousy dragon," people might just call you a "fantasy writer," even if your book is about much more.
Main Ideas and Themes
All the rats' names come from words they saw on food tins before they knew what the words meant. They just picked names that sounded cool to them. Terry Pratchett plays with this idea. For example, the rat who doubted things was called "Tomato," which is a funny reference to "Doubting Thomas."
Other Versions of the Story
- BBC Radio 4 made a 90-minute radio play of the book. It was first broadcast on August 23, 2003. It has been played again on BBC 7 several times. The actor David Tennant was the voice of Dangerous Beans. Darktan's voice was a funny imitation of Sean Connery's Scottish accent. In the radio play, Maurice himself tells the story. He explains to Dangerous Beans how they got into their dangerous situation. Quotes from Mr. Bunnsy Has an Adventure were read by Rebecca Norfolk, an 8-year-old who played "Child reader."
- The book has been turned into a stage play twice. The first version was by Stephen Briggs in 2003. The second was a musical by Matthew Holmes in 2011. Both plays are made for schools to perform.
- In June 2019, it was announced that an animated movie called The Amazing Maurice was being made. It is a joint project between Ulysses Filmproduktion and Cantilever Media. Terry Rossio wrote the movie script. The movie's budget was about €15 million (which is about $17 million). In November 2020, the voice actors were announced. They include famous names like Hugh Laurie, Emilia Clarke, David Thewlis, Himesh Patel, Gemma Arterton, and Hugh Bonneville.
See also
In Spanish: El asombroso Mauricio y sus roedores sabios para niños
