The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In the town of Hamelin, the rich and greedy live like kings and queens while the poor and sick scavenge rubbish tips for scraps. A lame orphan boy tells the classic tale of how a plague of rats take over the town and how a fantastic piper offers to rid Hamelin of its rats for a single gold coin.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

The team behind 2008's Hansel and Gretel gives this dark fairy tale a Dickensian spin and a blatant social agenda, with a socially marginal but insightful boy narrator; a corrupt, fetid setting (the rats must be literally beaten off with sticks); and a scathing indictment of the ruling class ("the rich and the greedy lived like kings and queens behind the walls and gates of their grand houses"). By the time the Piper arrives, readers will be itching for Hamelin to get its comeuppance, thanks to Clark's moody acrylic and pencil illustrations and her portrayal of the Piper as a dashing, slyly menacing antihero. Unfortunately, Morpurgo has bigger fish to fry. Instead of the children being lost forever inside the mountain, they're held in custody by the Piper until Hamelin cleans up its dumps, creates fair housing, builds a school and a playground, and puts in place a social safety net and health care reform ("No beggars walked the streets anymore, and the sick and old were lovingly cared for"). It's enough to make even deep-seated blue staters blanch. Ages 5-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

Gr 3-6-A greatly expanded version of the old story, told by a lame boy. The tension between rich and poor is the immediate premise. "The streets and alleyways in Hamelin Town were full of beggars and children like us.. Meanwhile the rich and greedy lived like kings and queens .." Some of the wordy explanations seem beyond the view of the narrator, and the slow beginning gives way to an extended description of the horrific situation as the rats invade the dirty streets, government offices, and homes of the rich. Clark's energetic pen and acrylic scenes, though warm in color and incorporating folk-art motifs, build the horror of the rodents piling up by the thousands and chasing people through town. The arrival of the tall, calm stranger in colorful harlequin suit and wide-brimmed hat is a welcome relief to the gruesome scenario. The story goes on to the drowning of the rats, the greedy mayor's refusal to pay the piper, and the departure of the town's children. Morpurgo then gives the narrator a special role as the piper's emissary. He delivers the extended moral of the story to the citizens of Hamelin, who must spend a year redistributing the wealth and cleaning up the garbage in the streets, after which the children return. The book might provide good discussion material, and the nightmarish rat invasion would satisfy readers yearning for something really creepy.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

True to the spirit of the original tale, this attractive retelling adds some new twists and a happy ending without denying the dark, universal drama. The narrator is a small orphan boy on a crutch who lives with little food and shelter in the Hamelin shantytown, which is ignored by a fat, cruel mayor and his powerful cronies. When Hamelin is overrun with a plague of rats, the Pied Piper comes to town and gets rid of the problem. But when the mayor reneges on his bargain, the Piper plays music that lures all the local children, who follow him out of town in a long, dancing, happy line. Clark's large, bright spreads will have kids poring over the minutely detailed collage scenes, from the crowded slums to the Piper leading thousands of rats into the river. Then there are the close-ups that contrast the ragged kids with the pompous mayor and his overdressed companions. In this version, the Piper gets the power to clean up the filth and restore the town, and the children come back to a new world.--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2010 Booklist

Horn Book Review

Morpurgo gives the old story about breaking promises a new spin that might resonate with the Occupy Wall Street protesters. He opens with a horrifying depiction of life in Hamelin Town, where the orphaned and abandoned children starve while the "rich and the greedy lived like kings and queens behind the walls and gates of their grand houses." Then come a "plague of rats," who eat all the food formerly scavenged by the orphan children, grow much larger, and begin hunting in packs. Even the rich are imprisoned by the rats until a strange man in multicolored (pied) clothing comes before the mayor and offers to get rid of the rodents in exchange for one gold coin, just one, because "enough is always as good as a feast." The piper keeps his word but the mayor doesn't, so the piper takes the children away and sends the message that the adults have a year and a day to make the town fit for them to live in again. The first third of the book is pretty grim, but Clark's watercolors lighten the mood a little with lots of patterns and by depicting the rats as slightly comical. Morpurgo writes a very happy ending, with a completely reformed town reunited with its children, and their debt forgiven. There are surprisingly few versions of the Pied Piper fable for children, and most of them use the poem by Robert Browning, so this new retelling is a welcome one. susan dove lempkeFrom HORN BOOK, Copyright The Horn Book, used with permission.

Kirkus Book Review

(Picture book. 6-9)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.