14. Ratnip: Lost and Found in the City. Cam Higgins. Illustrated by Allison Steinfeld. 2025. [February] 128 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, animal fantasy, early chapter book]
First sentence: "First one out of bed is a rotten egg!" Mmm, rotten egg. I licked my lips. Rotten eggs are the slimiest. And the yummiest! My nose wiggled as I imagined the deliciously stinky stench of a rotten egg. My whiskers twitched as I almost tasted its gooey greenness.
Premise/plot: Ratnip is....you guessed it...a rat. He and his large family live in the city in an abandoned pizzeria. Not all of his siblings are comfortable enough going out on the streets to scrounge for food, but Ratnip finds it quite the adventure. Humans are so curious! In this first book in a new series, Ratnip finds a cell phone and becomes determined to return this lost object to its owner. But how is this to be achieved? After all, he's a rat and the phone is awkward to lug around! It might just take some friends new and old to get the job done.
My thoughts: I liked this one. I am always happy to give new early chapter books a try. Would I have liked it more if it had been mice instead of rats? Perhaps. I do always enjoy animal fantasy. This one was cute enough--well, if you can get over rats and cute being in the same sentence. There are three more books already in the works for this series. And the author has another series as well.
© 2025 Becky Laney of Young Readers
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