“Rivka Galchen delivers joy and cleverness reminiscent of The Phantom Tollbooth , Alice in Wonderland , and Hayao Miyazaki movies” (NPR, Best Books of 2019) in Rat Rule 79 , a brain-twisting adventure story about friendship, growing up, and peanut-butter-pickle sandwiches. Fred and her math-teacher mom are always on the move, and Fred is getting sick of it. She’s about to have yet another birthday in a new place without friends. On the eve of turning thirteen, Fred sees something strange in the living her mother, dressed for a party, standing in front of an enormous paper lantern-which she steps into and disappears. Fred follows her and finds herself in the Land of Impossibility-a loopily illogical place where time has been outlawed by a mad Rat Queen, along with birthday parties and, most cruelly, peanut butter. Fred meets Downer, a downcast white elephant, and Gogo, a pugnacious mongoose mother of seventeen, who help her in her quest to find her mom. Together they must brave dungeons, Insult Fish, a Know-It-Owl, Fearsome Ferlings, and ultimately the Rat Queen herself-and solve an ageless riddle to escape certain doom. Gorgeously illustrated and reminiscent of The Phantom Tollbooth and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , Rivka Galchen’s Rat Rule 79 is an instant classic for curious readers of all ages.

Rat Rule 79: An Adventure (Yonder) PDF

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