I was a rat! ... or the scarlet slippers

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Roger insists he was a rat. But what is he now? A terrifying monster rampaging in the sewers? A money-spinning fairground freak? Or just an ordinary small boy, though a little ratty in his habits? Only three people believe this version of the story. Only one of them knows who Roger really is.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

Gr 4-7-Distracted by mischief and some soccer playing with boys in the castle, a rat who was transformed as a coachman for Cinderella's pumpkin coach doesn't make the midnight curfew and remains a small boy in a page's uniform. In this spin-off of the tale, Pullman magically weaves fairy tale, humor, and adventure in this story of Roger, a scruffy little boy who, when he presents himself at the London home of an old, childless couple, claims to have been a rat. Is he a terrible monster, a fairground freak, a thief, or just an ordinary little boy with the somewhat ratty habits of ordinary little boys? In a delightful and witty parody of the press (even the title reads like a supermarket tabloid, and pages of "The Daily Scourge" are interspersed throughout the text), the author exposes the media's fascination with the weird, the sensational, and the horrible, all at the expense of the truth. And the parody is not confined to the press. Pullman pokes fun at government officials, medical personnel, philosophers, psychology, the Royal family, and human nature in general as a richly varied cast of characters attempts to figure out whether or not Roger is a rat. The author leaves readers with some thought-provoking ideas about living with the consequences of one's wish; about the importance of what one does, not who one is; and about the power of love.-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Gr. 4^-6. Late one night there's a knock at Old Bob and Joan's door. It's a little boy in a torn, stained page's uniform. "I was a rat," he announces. The elderly couple don't know what to make of this, but they have always longed for a child, so they give the boy a home and a name, Roger. The boy continues to insist that he was a rat, and his ravenous appetite for wood and curtains suggests that, perhaps, he was. His new parents turn to the experts, but everyone--city officials, the police, even the Philosopher Royal--is baffled. Interspersed among the unfolding events of Roger's story are reports from the local newspaper, the Daily Scourge, of the "fairy tale" marriage of Prince Richard and Lady Aurelia. Yes, this is a fractured retelling of "Cinderella," and Pullman has great fun turning fairy tale convention on its head, deflating adult pomposity, and exposing the savagely self-serving nature of the popular press. The result is a little Perrault, a lot of Dickens, and, altogether, nonstop satirical fun for readers--who will laugh out loud at each new twist and turn. --Michael Cart

Horn Book Review

(Intermediate) While we've always assumed that Cinderella's rat-turned-pageboy was transformed back into a rat at the stroke of midnight, apparently that wasn't the case at all. Busily sliding down banisters with fellow pageboys at the palace, he missed the post-ball pumpkin-coach ride and got trapped in boy form. In a narrative laced with satire, Philip Pullman tells the rat-boy's story, interspersed with scathingly funny lead articles from the local rag, the Daily Scourge. Lost and confused, the boy turns up on the doorstep of the cobbler Bob and his washerwoman wife Joan, a childless couple who name him Roger and happily take him in despite his ratty habits and his notions of a past life in the gutter. But when the Philosopher Royal interviews and frightens Roger, he runs away and has various adventures before being imprisoned by the government as a dangerous monster. The only person who can vouch for his humanity and save him from extermination is his old pal Mary Jane-now known as Princess Aurelia. Young readers will find Pullman's story completely entertaining, whether or not they appreciate his playful spoofing of sensational news stories, mob mentality, and the royal family. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Book Review

Pullman (The Firework-Maker's Daughter, p. 1651, etc.) takes aim at city hall, the law, police, and especially the press in this whirlwind spinoff from a certain familiar fairy tale. As The Daily Scourge trumpets the prince's whirlwind courtship with a mysterious princess, humble cobbler, Old Bob, and his wife, Joan, share a more immediate concern when an exhausted lad in a torn page-boy's uniform appears at their door, able to tell them only that he used to be a rat. Although his habits and table manners are indeed ratlike, Bob and Joan take him in, dub him ``Roger'' and, when no government agency shows an interest, begin to think of him as their own. A quick learner but completely at sea in human society, Roger immediately falls into a series of misadventures, from biting a teacher who tries to strike him, to becoming a sideshow attraction. He flees to the sewers, only to be hunted down and condemned, both in court and in the pages of the Scourge, as a danger to children. Fortunately, Bob and Joan bring Roger's plight, along with a pair of fine shoes, to the kindly princess, who, realizing just who the boy is, engineers a royal rescue. The satire is a bit heavy-handed, but children will find Roger's ingenuousness, along with his inordinate fondness for pencils and other tasty chewables, hilarious. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 10-12)