A rat can squeeze through a gap the width of its skull, chew through a lead pipe, remember a route it walked once, and spend a good part of the evening grooming a friend. Children who keep them know all of this already; everybody else has inherited a few centuries of shudder. Which is exactly why rats are such useful characters — a writer can hand a rat the villain's cloak or the hero's sword and the reader will accept either, and the best books make a child notice the choice being made.
Bookroo's collection of 68 rat books runs from a highwayman with a taste for other animals' buns to a laboratory colony arguing about how to live, with plenty of sewers, subways, tea parties, and moon-eating invaders in between. Our editors picked fourteen that are funny, brave, or genuinely informative rather than merely creepy-crawly. Start with the shortlist, then browse picture books for read-alouds and brand-new readers, or chapter books and graphic novels for anyone who wants to stay underground longer.
A widowed field mouse asks the rats under the rosebush for help and finds a colony that can read, wire electricity, and is arguing about leaving all of it behind.
A cheerful cartoon narrator introduces the rat's tail (good for balancing, also for picking noses), teeth that chew through books, and taste for electrical wires in tomato sauce.
A highwayman rat robs every traveler on the road of clover, nuts, and buns — including, eventually, his own horse's hay.
Orris the rat has a barn, a hoard of treasures, and no wish for company — until an owl gets caught in a trap on his floor.
Louie and Ralphie Ratso set out to prove how tough they are and keep accidentally doing good deeds all over the Big City.
Cyril the squirrel's new best friend is grey, quick, and — as the entire park keeps pointing out — a rat.
Rat wants tea and the crossword. Gnome wants Hat Day. One small forest cottage accommodates both, mostly.
Rats are eating the moon, and Earth's entire response is one bioengineered cat, one toenail-clipping robot, and a great deal of pizza.
Rats move into the ground-floor flat, and the news gets worse on every landing as it travels through the building.
A cat takes the rat's mat and will not get off, in words a brand-new reader can sound out alone.
One rat bite turns an aspiring seventh-grader into a three-inch rodent in a sword-and-sewer kingdom beneath the city.
Rats find the fallen letters of an ART FAIR sign, rearrange them, and throw a fair of their own.
A subway rat loses his little brother somewhere above ground and crosses all of New York City to bring him home.
A vain New Jersey squirrel is dropped by a hawk onto a Manhattan street and has to build a life among the waterfront rats.
Rhyming cat-and-rat standoffs a new reader can sound out, rats with big plans and bad reputations, and unlikely friendships for ages 3–8.
A tidy mouse faces chaos when a messy neighbor moves in. Can they find harmony?
Two brothers turn a junkyard into an arcade, but their fun is threatened when a bell breaks a window in the supposedly haunted house next door
Rat's trickery left Cat without a zodiac year. Can an apology mend their friendship?
Cat and Rat's rivalry over a hat spirals into chaos.
An awkward mole rat seeks friends who share her quirky passions.
Jack's house of cheese attracts chaos with a rat and a cat.
Unlock the magic of reading with playful vowel adventures.
A cat's envy over a hat tests friendship boundaries.
Beach trip chaos: missed buses, hungry seagulls, and a lost kite challenge three friends' fun.
Cat chases Rat, but Pat intervenes. Who will win?
Dog's nap is disrupted by a speedy visitor. Can they become friends?
A grumpy cat faces a sharing dilemma with a persistent rat.
NIMH sequels, underground kingdoms, spy-school rodents, graphic novels, and first chapter books for independent readers ages 6–12.
The Moon Queen is poisoned. Can First Cat find the antidote in time?
A mouse must choose between destiny and freedom as chaos reigns underground.
Mice vanish mysteriously, leading Gregor to a dark prophecy.
A princess and prince chase a stolen hydra egg, uncovering secrets in a tower guarded by a mysterious rat.
A missing rodent, a rogue brother, and a hidden secret threaten the fragile peace in Atlantia's tunnels.
A mouse travels to the Wild West to face a challenge from an evil gunmouse.
A group of mice must stop a group of rats from taking over the world.
Missy must outsmart a rival to save her class pet plans.
A brave mouse, a princess, and a scheming rat collide in a tale of courage and destiny.
Join the Pearls gang for jokes, jabs, and puns in a hilarious adventure.
A boastful rodent faces a crisis that tests his heroism.
Lost in the woods, two siblings must protect their secretive rescuers to find their way home.
