ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
INTERMEDIATE FICTION
Hautman, Pete

The Rat Queen

400 pp. | Candlewick | October, 2022 | Trade ISBN 978-1-5362-1858-9 $18.99
(2) 4-6 In this spooky fantasy, Annie finds a book of folktales from Litvania, her parents' homeland, and begins reading magical stories filled with clever girls and menacing beasts. For her tenth birthday, Annie's father gives her paper on which she is supposed to write her bad thoughts and actions and then feed the paper to the nuodeema burna, or the sin-eater, under the floorboards of her father's study. Once she begins participating in this Litvanian tradition, she ceases to grow, and the rats that have been plaguing the neighborhood get bolder still. Sinister family secrets, such as a never-aging father and a mother who'd mysteriously disappeared, come to the surface with the hordes of vermin that take to the town. Annie must restore order to her community--and all of Litvania as well. Her adventures are bound to find an eager audience in readers who value determination and moral fortitude in the face of an increasingly confusing grown-up world.
Reviewer: Sarah Berman | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2022

RELATED 

INTERMEDIATE FICTION

The Republic of Birds
by Miller, Jessica
INTERMEDIATE FICTION

Atlantis
by Mone, Gregory
INTERMEDIATE FICTION

It Doesn't Take a Genius
by Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola
INTERMEDIATE FICTION

Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls
by Rivera, Kaela
INTERMEDIATE FICTION

Soul Lanterns
by Kuzki, Shaw
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?