Jonell, Lynne.
EMMY AND THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING RAT 
New York : Holt, 2007
IL 5-8, RL 5.0
ISBN 080508150X

(3 booktalks)

“Emmy was a good girl…she really was a little too good... which is why she liked to sit by the Rat. The Rat was not good at all…” So begins the fascinating story of a girl who found she could communicate with the class Rat. This led her into the mysterious secrets of the rodent world and an explanation of why her heretofore loving parents had become so distant of late. Could her very intrusive nanny, Miss Barmy, really be as evil as it now appeared?   (New Hampshire Great Stone Face nominee, 2008-2009)

Booktalk #2

It's the meanest thing in the world," said Emmy severely, "to ignore someone. It makes a person feel like she doesn't even exist." Emmy would know.  No one ever seems to notice her -not the other kids in her class, her teachers don't remember her name, and ever since her formerly loving parents inherited all that money from her Uncle William, they don't seem to notice she's there either. Emmy is left in the care of an overbearing and cruel nanny. She tries to be extra, extra good so they"ll notice, but it's almost like she's invisible. That"s why she likes to sit next to the Rat at school. He isn't good at all. He leers at the children, bites at their fingers when they reach into his cage to feed him, and makes underhanded remarks about everyone around. Emmy is the only one who seems to be able to hear him, and she starts to wonder if she's just imagining things. Through her friendship with the class Rat she begins to feel more confident and determined not to be ignored. She also begins to realize that she's in the middle of a mystery- someone is making her invisible on purpose.  (Carmine Rau, librarian, crau@krl.org)

Booktalk #3

No one in school seemed to notice Emmy, although she tried hard to be good. The only one who seemed to notice her was the class pet, a rat. And after he bites her finger, Emmy thinks she can hear him talking…and even if he is the only one who notices her, he isn’t very nice. Why do her
parents keep going away and leaving her with her nanny, Miss Barmy? And what happens when the rat bites one of Emmy’s classmates, twice? Will he ever return to normal size??  (Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Awards Program, 2009-2010)