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Charlotte's Web- Templeton's Version

April 1st, 2024

Today’s review is a book by E. B. White. Charlotte’s Web is about a rat named Templeton and the other animals that live in a barn with him.

The opening line is sensational (like with Stuart Little). "Where's Papa going with that ax?" That's so good! It's practically the entire drama and stakes of the book, in one sentence! It's only undercut by the fact that they're not talking about Templeton the rat.

This is a talking animal book. I know you can say this about most talking animal books... but the morality is so bizarre. It's supposedly a bad thing that Wilbur might get eaten. But what about his ten siblings who they sell at 5 months old? If Charlotte the spider can have conversations, why not flies. And the barn has rat traps!

I don't love the treatment of the human girl Fern- her parents are worried about her, because she talks to animals. They talk with a doctor in one chapter, who says "oh, she'll start being interested in boys eventually". And then she does. That's the end of her story. She does grow up and stops talking with animals. Heteronormative, and really everything-normative.

The descriptions are really terrific, though. E. B. White makes me want to live in a manure pile and eat slops, because it sounds so appealing and delicious.

But let's get back to the main character.

The book was decently accurate about rats. Templeton, like real rat species, is mainly interested in food and shelter. He's not popular, but he's not unnecessarily cruel. Just very self-interested. He eats Wilbur's breakfast, he's nocturnal, and has many tunnels. He likes the dump because it has food and hiding places. That's pretty accurate.

Templeton is willing to kill a gosling, and everyone knows it. When one of the goose eggs doesn't hatch, he wants it. He doesn't have a particular purpose, he just wants to have it. I don't know as much about pack rats, but that sounds like pack rat behavior. I don't think of brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) or black rats (Rattus rattus) as huge collectors. (He is probably one of those two species.)

One of the least accurate things is that Templeton is alone. How on earth is there only one rat in this whole barn?

I was really happy for him, when he went to the county fair and got to eat a lot of food. He gets huge! But rat behavior-wise, that's not very realistic either. Some rats definitely feast on foods at big events, but one of the things that helps their species survive is that they're unwilling to try new foods (neophobic). They'll leave things alone for a long time before trying them, because they might be poison.

Even though Templeton says his stomach can handle anything, real rats are incapable of vomiting. So, they need to be very careful about what they eat. A barn rat would not try so many new foods in a new place.

[April Fools aside, this next part is actually interesting to me.]

Templeton is heroic in his own way, throughout the book. But he's not seen that way. His rotten egg bursts and scares the human boy Avery away from killing Charlotte. He finds the words for Charlotte to write in her web. When Wilbur faints from all the praise he's getting at the fair, Templeton bites him so he'll jump up and look lively. He even saves Charlotte's egg case and brings it back to the barn.

He's benefiting from this, like making a deal so he can eat Wilbur's food. But he's still arguably just as essential as Charlotte to save Wilbur's life. It's not even like spiders are so much more popular than rats. But Charlotte is "the size of a gumdrop", which is a very intentional move to make her sound unfrightening. And Templeton has "long ugly teeth".

[okay back to funny mode]

I’m not quite sure why it was called “Charlotte’s Web” and not “Templeton’s Trough”. He’s clearly the most compelling character, and I wish less time had been spent on the side characters like Wilbur the pig and Fern the human.

My rating: 3

Overall rating: 3

[youngestrunningleek]

The Tale of One Bad Rat

Content warning: this book covers familial sexual abuse, suicidal ideation, and homelessness. The review will get into that. I know the previous book also did, but I promise it won't be a pattern.

The Tale of One Bad Rat, by Bryan Talbot

This is a comic written in 1994. It begins in London and follows a homeless girl named Helen as she heals from abuse.

I am going to get into detail about the story. The actual plot doesn’t have many “spoilers”, but I’ll undress a lot of the emotional moments.

I saw the title at a library, and I took a closer look. Haha, I love rats, so funny… Then the back cover had these reviews about the importance of addressing child abuse, and I realized it was a serious book. I think the book handles Helen’s situation very well. It’s not an easy read, but it’s sympathetic and it shines light on something that people rarely want to talk about.

Something silly about me is that I often get annoyed by book titles with animals. Take Dinosaurs, by Lydia Millet. I get interested, only to read the back cover and see it’s not literally about dinosaurs.

This book was not like that. Helen has a pet rat, she admires them and shares facts about rats, and rats are generally a theme throughout the book. Surprise surprise, she’s the One Bad Rat the story is talking about. She’s unwanted by society and shunned.

I thought she was a boy at first, just based off the cover. I realize that’s intentional— she deliberately has short hair because she doesn’t want to be seen as a young woman alone in the world.

I think that also reflects the representation of homelessness. It was easier for me to imagine a solo homeless boy than a solo homeless girl.

I admire that the book shows Helen’s hair growing longer. I personally just appreciate when media shows characters change over time, but it’s also a good metaphor for her healing. When she’s safe, she is free to grow it out more.

The book used the medium of comics very well. At several points, Helen has intrusive thoughts, like jumping off a bridge. The panels don’t change or anything. You see her do it, then, there’s another panel and you realize she was just envisioning doing that. It felt very similar to my experience. You’re in that current without even realizing it’s happening, and then you jerk back to reality.

Something bittersweet about this book is the kindness Helen receives. She deserves it. She’s taken in by some older kids. I think it’s a little funny how she agrees to pretend she’s sleeping with a boy, so he won't get bullied by the others. It’s very utilitarian. They’re both getting what they need from the relationship. She later finds an older couple to live with, and who doesn’t love found family? It’s very, very sweet. But it's bittersweet because I know so many people don’t have that support.

The healing is really, really amazing. I wrote in my notes that reading this book felt like unclenching a painfully tight muscle. It hurts, but the release and healing is very powerful.

The afterword really made me appreciate this book. In my edition, Talbot talked about his process making the book, and the reception since it was first published. He originally wanted to write a story about the Lake District in the UK. He basically had the protagonist fleeing parental abuse as an excuse to tell the story. 

Then, after doing more research, he realized he had to fully address that. It became more central. He says it much better than I can, but the general point is that abuse is far more common than we think. People don’t want to talk about it, but talking about it is the only way we’re going to make things better.

I strongly encourage people to read the afterword here.

Note on language: I know there are many terms to use for unhoused people. I say “homeless” in this review because 1. It’s commonly understood and 2. Helen’s journey is just as much about finding an emotional home as it is finding a roof over her head.

My rating: 4.5

Overall rating: 4.5

[youngestrunningleek]

The Coming of the Rats

Content warning: the book I'm reviewing today has a lot of sexual content.

Today I am reviewing The Coming of the Rats, by George H. Smith, published in 1961. It's a science fiction novel about a man surviving nuclear apocalypse.

Image description: The book's cover. It has a skinny blonde woman with her clothes being ripped off by hordes of red-eyed rats. It is 50 cents.

Before I go further, I will say that this book has a lot of sexual violence in it. It is treated badly. That's all I'll say in this review. Also, I'll be spoiling the end, but it's a bad book so don't feel too bad.

So, when I picked the book up (just the title was enough to get me excited) I knew what I was getting into. It was really funny. If you like this sort of thing, then this is the sort of thing you will like. I could write a thousand words taking down this long-dead author's sexism, but I'm not going to waste anyone's time.

Something that surprised me was that it's a near-future book. It takes place in 1963, and was published in 1961. I think of near futures as being a modern trend. Today, technology feels like it's advancing by leaps and bounds. It's easy to set science fiction just a few years from now. But Smith was doing this in the sixties. Early on, his protagonist explains why the year has to be 1963. I can't vouch for the accuracy of his calculations about the Russians' nuclear arsenal, but he clearly put some thought into it.

I find it kind of reassuring to read accounts from the Cold War. (It feels funny to use that name since it wasn't cold at all, for so many people.) I don't think people were wrong to be worried about the end of humanity, back then. But the world didn't burn. We live in scary times now. It's nice to know people were afraid the world would end, and it didn't happen.

One piece of evidence the book cites is that 90% of humans will die if exposed to 400-600 roentgens, and only 50% of rats will die if exposed to 825 roentgens. Again, citation is needed. In the text, it quickly becomes "rats can survive twice as much radiation as humans and live".

In reality, most of the book is set before the bombs fall, and very little of it is about rats. The protagonist spends the first part preparing and trying to convince Bettirose, his coworker, to go with him to his cave in the mountains. Once the bombs do fall,  he has some incidents with other survivors and prepares for the rat invasion. He sees the occasional rat and worries about them, but there's no horde until the last chapter. The vast majority is not really about rats. I guess that's a hazard of an older book. I'm used to covers talking about the first 10-20% of a book. But in this one, the rats are less of the premise and more like the climax.

Speaking of the climax, it was just fine. I'm obsessed with rats, and I was happy they finally showed up... but it was an awfully long wait for an average action scene. Something I would have liked to see is more description of the cats, dogs, and weasels the protagonist stores. Throughout the book he collects as many of them as he can, and they're useful in the end because they kill rats. But, compared to the detail given to farming and other preparations, there's never any description of the animals. They say the animals are taking up food, but how much? Dozens of animals are a lot of mouths to feed. And he never mentions taking the dogs for walks, or waste disposal. I'm not talking about animal welfare, I'm talking about them literally being able to survive. If you're going to have tens upon tens of weasels, dogs, and cats, you need to spend most of your time maintaining them. And there's never any description of that. Are they plants?

Also, the very ending is especially bad. It's hard to end a post-nuclear apocalypse story, but this is not the way. After waves upon waves of rats, there's a king rat. The protagonist kills it, and the rest scatter. Eyeroll. Then, there's a few paragraphs, maybe a page and a half, of thinking about the future. He knows the rats will come again, but he'll breed dogs, and make more preparations. That's the end. "I'm confident we'll be ready". Very weak.

If I was hard on this book, well, it's because it's bad. The sexism was really funny, until it stopped being funny. You don't need to read this one. My personal rating: 2.5 / 5 My overall rating: 1.5 / 5

[youngestrunningleek]

Expedition Backyard

Today's review is ...

Expedition Backyard

Exploring Nature from Country to City

by

Rosemary Mosco, Binglin Hu, Ashanti Fortson (color design) Desolina Fletcher (flatting assistance)

I was thinking to myself the other day, “does anyone know what a vole is?” They’re kind of just like… generic rodents. I know the word. But they’re never the center of things, the way that mice are. There’s no famous voles. So, I looked up voles at my local library, and what do you know? I found one book with a vole.

It’s a children’s picture/comic book, about best friends Mole and Vole exploring nature.

The book is gorgeous. I feel like every page blows me away and makes me a better person. I can tell care went into every single one. The wobbly panel borders are comforting.

It’s a love letter to my very favorite kind of nature: backyard nature. Wildlife documentaries are great, but this book elevates the local wildlife. It helps that it’s very New England-based, which is where live, too. The book has a strong message that whether you’re in a rural or urban area, you can find wonderful things.

Mole and Vole are a delight. Their friendship is pure love, and it’s infectious. Mole is more cautious while Vole is more adventurous. They’re a perfect duo.

Mole and Vole hold each other's hands and at the same time say "Time to watch NATURE SHOWS in the house!"

It’s not just beautiful and joyful, it teaches things. They pass by a stone and mention it was dropped by a glacier during the last ice age. That’s real! Glacial erratics are a thing! They casually teach readers that honeybees are actually an introduced species to the US, and there are many species of bees, some of which aren’t yellow-and-black. The end of the book has useful tips on composting, community gardens, keeping birds safe from windows, and more.

A 2-panel spread where we see Mole and Vole walking in the park. They see many types of birds and hear their calls.

At one point, they meet a snake and a spider. I particularly liked those two, because they were characterized as trying to be scary. The DeKay’s brownsnake is a “TERRIFYING hunter!”, who hunts only the most fearsome prey… slugs and worms. The jumping spider calls itself vicious, but the next panel has Vole looking at how cute, small and fuzzy it is.

The aforementioned panels with trying-to-be-tough spider and snake.

        I haven’t seen that characterization before, for spiders and snakes. Plenty of media shows them as monsters. Plenty of people who like them will say they’re not gross. But that’s not helpful to someone who’s afraid. So, making them adorable as they try to seem tough is a neat synthesis of those two ideas. The book makes space for being afraid of nature, instead of assuming people will love every second of it.

When I finished, I realized it’s a 5/5 on my personal ranking and on my general ranking. I can’t imagine how it would have done its job better. I wasn’t thinking “this is a 5/5 book” while I read it, because I was only thinking about how delightful it is. I’m incredibly glad I found this book by chance.

Have you read this book, or one like it?

Sorry I still have no scanner.

[youngestrunningleek]

Stuart Little

I just recently read Stuart Little, written in 1945 by E.B. White, so I'll review it here as my first review.

Beware! I will be talking about plot details, including the end. And a big part of the experience for me was that I didn't know where the story would go next.

Overview

    It's about a boy(?) named Stuart Little. It's hard to say much more than that, because there's no central thread. I can pitch Charlotte's Web to you: there is a pig and the barn animals, especially the spider Charlotte, are trying to keep him from getting eaten. This book, though? It's just... about Stuart Little.

    It has a really great opening line: "When Mrs. Frederick C. Little's second son arrived, everybody noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse." In the first edition, the line is that he "was born". The book isn't very specific about whether he's a mouse, or a boy who just looks like a mouse.

 My Thoughts

I loved it, and I don't know what to make of it. I am glad such a strange book is considered a classic, even if I don't understand why. It's hilariously matter-of-fact, almost deadpan. Yeah, he could walk as soon as he was born. He's in love with a bird. There's an invisible car. Deal with it.

I really, really loved the bits about how Stuart lives. Early chapters explain how he gets clothes, how he gets around, and the challenges of raising a mouse-boy. It's actually a great message. People don't question his different needs, they just accommodate him. I could read an entire book about the challenges of being the size of a mouse in a world built for human-sized people. And I did! And I want more!

There's a great deal of attention paid to his clothes. From the first chapter: "Before he was many days old he was not only looking like a mouse but acting like one, too-- wearing a gray hat and carrying a small cane." Does E. B. White know what a mouse is? Is that the problem? A few sentences later, Mrs. Little makes Stuart "a fine little blue worsted suit with patch pockets in which he could keep his handkerchief, his money, and his keys." At another point he wears "a pepper-and-salt jacket, old striped trousers, a Windsor tie, and spectacles." And the whole book is like that. Stuart is a little gentleman. The world's smallest dandy.

     It kind of reads like E. B. White wasn't editing, at all. Pure 'yes and', no revisions. Or, it's like a group storytelling game, where everybody contributes one sentence at a time.

    After a few chapters of little adventures, he decides to run away from home to find the bird Margalo. And we never see her, or Stuart's family, again.

    There's a non sequitur chapter where he becomes a schoolteacher for a day, and I don't think it relates to anything that comes before or after.

    There's an invisible car, like I mentioned. Unironically, halfway through the book, Stuart's doctor friend gives him a miniature car that can turn invisible. What? That wasn't part of the premise!

    There's also a human girl, the same size as Stuart, in the later part of the book. Where did that come from? She's small like him, but she doesn't look like a mouse.

    It's like the reverse of Chekov's gun. Something new could be introduced at any moment, and something could be dropped at any moment.     To be crystal clear, I enjoy this. I like the unpredictability. And, it must be well-written somehow, because even with how odd it gets, I never lost my suspension of disbelief.     This would be an excellent exercise in storytelling. I'd ask children what they think will happen in the next chapter.     Even the ending is a kind of curveball: a telephone repairman talks for a long time about how great North is, as a direction. And then Stuart keeps driving.      Overall, I liked it, even if I don't know if it's well-written. It seemingly breaks a lot of rules about writing. It's profoundly weird from a storytelling perspective, so I'm glad it's somehow a popular book. I give it a 3/5 overall, and a 4/5 for me, personally. For further reading: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/07/21/the-lion-and-the-mouse This article talks about children's books and how Stuart Little was part of a fight over what children's book should be. Anne Carroll Moore is a fascinating historical figure. Sorry, I have no scanner, so here's some pictures of Garth Williams' illustrations.

Stuart is on a branch with the human-shaped girl, Harriet. He's dressed like a human, but he has a tail and a face like a mouse.

In the second, she's watching him swim and his furry body is on display as he looks at her. P.S.: Since my specific focus is on rats, I feel like I should bring up the one major time they're mentioned in the book. During the schoolteacher chapter, Stuart gets very mad at being compared to a rat. He's very distinctly not a rat, and doesn't want to be mistaken for one.

[youngestrunningleek]

HEY-OH! This is my blog.

  I am Eli, and this is my blog. I just made it. Rats are my special interest, and I like fantasy with lil forest critters. Think Rats of NIMH, The Underfoot, Redwall, Mouseguard, the like. I'm going to post reviews of those kinds of books, on here. This blog was previously on Blogger https://ever-rat.blogspot.com/ I have just made a Tumblr acct for the first time. I'll learn as I go.