The Rats Came Back

Ted McGee is an associate professor of English at St. Jerome’s
College, University of Waterloo.

The Rats Came Back is an upbeat tale about the return of a host of rats
to Granny’s ramshackle farmhouse, where they dust and polish, repair
and repaint, clean and redecorate. For their efforts, eagerly undertaken
and energetically conducted, the rats get to eat the 16 boysenberry pies
by which Granny attracted them in the first place.

Rudolf Kurz’s illustrations deepen the playful mood of Ross
Seidel’s story by mixing rats, which are realistic in their physical
features, with rats anthropomorphized by fashion: one wears a sleeveless
gown; another wears blue jeans, a tank top, and sneakers; several don
the long coats (the “tails”) of the 1880s; and one sports the rings,
earrings, and orange spiky hair (with “rat tails”) of the 1980s. The
illustrations are rich in variety and vivid detail, from the butterflies
embroidered in Granny’s best table cloth to the flies, mosquitos,
caterpillars, moths, butterflies, snails, bees, and dragonflies that
make her rickety front porch their home. Indeed, the pictures add story
lines; the most notable of these concerns a granny rat (a rat dressed
like Granny herself) who helps Granny with her pies and enjoys an
especially close relationship with her human counterpart.

The Rats Came Back is a simple, little story made complex and engaging
by its illustrations. Recommended.