Tor SeidlerReviews

What a sweet little book.

Montegue Mad-Rat the younger is teased by the other rats. He is not like the high-tone wharf rats. His family doesn’t live in the good part of town. His family has ties to a notorious rat.

He spends time searching the park for bird feathers and berries. His mother uses the berries for dye and feathers to make rat hats. When he gets home he helps his mother.

On one of his sorties he meets and rescues a lovely girl wharf rat. He is instantly smitten. But they come from two different levels of rat society. You see, Mad-Rats are looked down upon by Wharf Rats because Mad-Rats use their paws to make things!

The Wharf Rats find out the current owner of the wharf land is planning to sell off the lots, which means there would be a major exterminating drive on the rats. The rats for a plan and Montegue plans to do his utmost to help. This is in order to impress the girl rat and win her heart. While facing the challenges he is presented, he learns more about who he is named for, more about himself and more about what he wants in life.

The characters may be rats, but the author gives them human traits. It is a good read with family, adventure, determination and even a pinch of romance. It also contains some wonderful, detailed illustration throughout the book.

A cute and quick read that nonetheless contains a lot of substance and nuance. I find the secret world of NYC rats in this book creative and fun and very memorable. Enjoyed this book as a kid and enjoyed reading it now as an adult.

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I actually remember this book, enjoying it and connecting with the characters. I recently remembered it and had to look it up, because I tend to read then lose the titles in my memory.

This story was cute, sweet, and amusing all at the same time. If you like mice or rat fiction, this is a good one.

Phoenix is a squirrel who is proud of his lustrous fur and bushy tail but can only climb down backwards, as opposed to head first. A hawk named Walter snatches him up to feed his babies but Phoenix ends up falling into Manhattan’s Central Park. A pigeon leads him to a pier on the Hudson River where he is saved from drowning by Lucy and Beckett, two of the many wharf rats living at the pier. After days of recovering, Phoenix learns that the pier will be demolished to build tennis courts. Although he is not a rat, Phoenix ends up being key to helping the rats keep their home. Lighthearted adventure fiction, ideal for family read-alouds. Gentle humor throughout. The outsider finds his place and learns to own his quirks.

There's a lot of wolf books, good, bad, awful, plain, and just forgettable. Where does Firstborn rank on this? You ever binge on things until you never want to read or watch another thing involving it again? That was me as a teen, I consumed wolf books and found disappointments galore. I grew weary, learned to predict every plot, grew cynical.

This is not a wolf book at heart, it's a tale about wolves told by our POV magpie and it's amazing. Not only are there birds, but so much more. It's a lovely breath of fresh air needed in a series. This book may only be three years old, but it's got a timeless feeling to it, like it could be from the eighties, nineties, or next year.

I do not blame the book for it, as it's nowhere near as bad as websites and the internet, but the "love story" interest thing involving Lamar, aka the alpha, is vastly not a thing. He wants to be friends, and seemingly grows up and accepts things. There's no real love beyond a friendship on shaky legs. So even that's not really a flaw. I expected a cheesy romance or some iffy romance subplot, but it was beyond that, an accident and guilt and the time fixing such a mistake took. A very mature theme in a small book.

A strong theme in the book is blood, relations, being true to yourself, even if you are expected to be someone else. Even if it earns you disdain and you are judged by your family. Maggie the magpie simply cannot abide by magpie ways and becomes one of the wolves in a lot of ways, Lamar is an alpha against hierarchy and the neglect of other wolves. So much within such a small book. It's breathtaking.

I really liked this story about the unknown ramifications of not quite telling the truth in order to make someone feel better. "The truth, he learned, was an unwelcome guest. It was obnoxious, ill-mannered; no one much cared for its company."

Gulliver is a high-falutin' lhasa apso much accustomed to a refined life of premium dog food, classical music, antique furnishings and annual jaunts to Paris with his master, Professor Rattigan. But the posh life comes to a crashing end when Dr. Rattigan decides to marry a woman allergic to dogs and Gulliver is (in his mind) unceremoniously dumped with the doorman's noisy family in hardscrabble Queens. Big and small degradations transform the once snooty Gulliver into a humbled, less narrow-minded Gully. Eloquent writing and vivid characters. This reminded me of the inner transformation in "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane."

Narrated by Jenni Barber. Readers may pick up a few things about life as a wolf but it's no Jean Craighead George. Best for those who may find JCG boring for their tastes and who like stories where animals are portrayed as talking and thinking characters. I found some of the animals' knowledge of the human world a bit of a stretch: how would Maggie the magpie know about GPS trackers in the wolves' collars? More of a 2.5 star rating.

An absorbing, rich tale of the wild exploring themes of self-acceptance, devotion, and integrity. A good book for discussing subjects of prejudice and stereotypes with readers.

Gully's the luckiest dog in the world: he has a perfect owner who lives in a fabulous apartment and who spoils Gully with yummy foods and outings in the park. But when his owner meets a woman who's allergic to dogs, the owner has to make a choice. Guess what? Gully is given away to another family. Will he be able to escape? Will he end up even trying?

Cute, from the dog's perspective, shows what is really is important in life -- being valued and loved, not the things we own or how rich we are. A light read even for a child.½

I don't usually like animal books since so many times the ending is that the animal dies. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, got a lump in my throat for his trials and tribulations, and gave my rescued dog an extra hug.

A fun, adorable storyline and gorgeous illustrations make this book a must read! As a mouse/rat obsessed elementary school student (yes, I loved Redwall), this book made my day. I read it over and over again.

This is a fun, fast-passed story about Darryl. He is a boy who recently lost his entire family in a fire and now resides at the Masterly Children's Center. This center is funded by the founder of the world's larges computer empire, Keith Masterly. Inside his room, Darryl plays a computer game called "Stargate". after scoring exceptionally well, he is adopted by Masterly himself and place at Paradise lab where he and other intelligent kids get to help create and conduct science experiments aimed at conquering time. Find out what masterly has in store for them....

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