The Road to Ratenburg
  Joy Cowley   Gavin Bishop 

 

 

The Road to RatenburgJoy Cowley (2016)
Illustrated by Gavin Bishop
Novel, 192 pages, Gecko Press
ISBN 978 1 776570 75 1

 

 

The Road to Ratenburg

‘The sky filled with thunder and the ground shook beneath our feet.’

This lively novel for young people starts with a bang as an apartment building is detonated into rubble. Made homeless by the demolition, a family of rats begin their quest for a new home. Their epic adventure is narrated by Spinnaker Rat (of the ship rat clan) who addresses the reader in the dignified and slightly pompous style of Papa Moomintroll.

 

Spinnaker even provides his own book review and health warning: ‘This book has in it much danger and some moments of sheer terror; but all of it is history, meaning it is in the past and therefore of no threat to you. I suggest, however, that it is not to be read to furry youngsters at bedtime, or to the elderly who still have nightmares about cats and dogs and wicked traps.’

Spinnaker’s travelling companions are his resourceful wife, Retsina, and their four charming ratlets, Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. (Retsina was raised behind a Greek restaurant and wanted something classical for her children.) Also tagging along is the annoying and egotistical Jolly Roger, a rather unreliable ship rat, with piratical leanings.

 

It is Retsina who suggests that they should travel to the fabled city of Ratenburg, where legend says their ancestors were taken by the piper who led them out of Hamelin. Young readers may have their doubts about this story but Spinnaker is confident that Ratenburg will have ‘granaries full of corn and peas, dairies stocked with cream, butter and large round cheeses.’

 

The rats are aware that they will face many dangers, not only from cats and dogs but also the ever-present ‘humming-beans’ (human beings). Another problem is that no rat has ever returned from a trip to Ratenburg, so details of the many perils are scanty. Using a map which includes ancestral knowledge and advice, the travellers begin by stowing away on a train, fully aware that they will face perilous pines, a bottomless bog and a voyage across an eel-infested lake. (Their user-friendly map of the route is on pages 26-7.)

The quest is an exciting one, with the added bonus that the young reader knows more than the self-important Spinnaker. Retsina is a wise and courageous figure, the bravest animal heroine since Mrs Frisby. Also, the four young rats quickly become separate personalities as they face the various dangers in their own way.

 

Joy Cowley has written a fresh and fast-moving action story with interesting characters and a genuine twist in the tale’s ending. This book is an exemplar of the young novels which transport young readers from picture books into the wider literary world.

 Gavin Bishop’s charming illustrations should overcome any ratophobia. He has carefully distinguished the rats so that we can recognise Retsina’s necklace, Roger’s scarf and (of course) Spinnaker’s spectacles perched on his nose. With its accessible prose, vivid pictures and handsome presentation, this book is a perfect invitation to take a rat’s eye view of the world.

 

Trevor Agnew 

14 Feb 2016 [Review 2916]