The Rat with the Human Face

Gr 4–6—This is the second entry in this series about a trio of middle schoolers in small-town Virginia who embark on gross and harebrained adventures. Narrator Lyle has heard rumors of a rat with a human face living in a seasonal research station outside of town. Along with friends Dave and Marilla (on whom he has a crush), Lyle contrives to ride with a busload of retirees to attend a brunch at a nearby hotel so they can sneak into the research facility and observe the rat. There are a few pleasantly quirky surprises—a convenience store crane game with a stuffed Andrew Jackson doll, a layer of social anxiety as Lyle reflects on living in a trailer park with parents who are clerks at the Quikpick, and a running device where the characters compete for points in "rhyme-jitsu." Lyle's story is told in "typed" reports, with sporadic spacing errors, on fake crumpled paper. These are interspersed with "handwritten" marginal comments and "unofficial personal" notes. A key scene depends on the peculiar narrative device of setting the story in the year 2000, meaning, as explained in a cumbersome author's note, that nobody has cell phones and their camera requires time to recharge the flash.