Ratbags: Best of pests by Tim Harris and Shiloh Gordon

Book number 3 in the Ratbags series by the very funny, Tim Harris will be warmly welcomed by the children who enjoy the action-packed pages of these books that are a mix between chapter books and graphic novels. Previous titles include Midnight Mischief and Naughty for Good.

The characters from the first 2 books are back – Jigsaw is still trying to be good; Onion still loves his food and Ripple can be quite smart when he wants to be.  Fancy Rat is a new character from Book 2, and his expectations are always too high for the others around him. 

In this story, the humans have had enough of the rats and are introducing tough new pest control measures. Rat traps are everywhere, and the rats need to be careful not to fall for the peanut butter traps. The rats have to work out a way to get past the cruel new rules and avoid being captured by the robot minks with laser beam eyes.  Naturally, they band together with the most unlikely ally, Crackers the Cat, and work out how to rid the neighbourhood of their new enemies and continue their normal naughty lives in the city. Plenty of action-packed illustrations, speech bubbles, and hilarious text keep the reader engaged.  A clue to the next story and a look at the next cover is given at the end of the story to keep young readers engaged, and ready for the next exciting book in this series.

Themes: Rats, Pest Control, Robots.

Gabrielle Anderson