Was It A Rat I Saw

Steve details his descent from bright star to burnout in this newly repackaged edition of the definitive, highly acclaimed novel from the creator of Veronica Mars and Party Down. Houston, sophomore year: Steve is on top of the world. He and his friends are the talk of the school. He’s in love with a terrific girl. He can even deal with “the astronaut”—a world-famous hero who happens to be his father. San Diego, senior year: Steve is bummed out, drugged out, flunking out. A no-nonsense counselor says he can graduate if he writes a 100-page paper. So Steve starts writing, and as the paper becomes more and more personal, he reveals how a National Merit Scholar has become an under-achieving stoner. And in telling how he got to where he is, Steve discovers how to get to where he wants to be.

This psychological thriller unites split brain research, animal rights, and a love quadrangle. To end life-threatening seizures, Tommy Dabrowski undergoes an operation that disconnects the two sides of his brain. Now, only half his brain can still communicate with the outside world - and it's the other half that becomes a witness to murder. Tensions grow and the death toll rises as brain researcher Clare Austen and Tommy race against time to figure out what Tommy knows before the killer comes for them.

“I Was a Rat!” So insists a scruffy boy named Roger. Maybe it’s true. But what is he now? A terrifying monster running wild in the sewers? The Daily Scourge is sure of it. A victim of “Rodent Delusion”? The hospital nurse says yes. A lucrative fairground freak? He is to Mr. Tapscrew. A champion wriggler and a budding thief? That’s what Billy thinks. Or just an ordinary small boy, though a little ratty in his habits? Only three people believe this version of the story. And it may take a royal intervention—and a bit of magic—to convince the rest of the world. Set against the backdrop of a Royal Wedding—and a playful parody of the press, I Was a Rat! is a magical weaving of humor, fairy tale, and adventure.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1951.

To be published simultaneously in nine countries, Rat is an allegorical novel--about the laws that govern society, about our mythologies, truths and lies, behaviors and institutions, love and hope--as reflected in the gutters, drains and sewers where our close relative, the rat, lives.

I have pretty much been around rats my whole life. My first childhood memory was of a dramatic encounter with one that set into motion a chain of events that occurred throughout my life that seem to go beyond belief. I would like to invite you on a journey throughout my life as I talk about the events that were unfolding at the time. I go on to talk about what is most inconcievably unexplainable. I can only think that there is a higher power at work here, like our lives are preordained. I know that this a controversial subject but the story will give you the reasons why. The Rat Worshiper is about these events that ultimately moulded me into the kind of person I am today.

Emmy was a good girl. At least she tried very hard to be good. She did her homework without being told. She ate all her vegetables, even the slimy ones. And she never talked back to her nanny, Miss Barmy, although it was almost impossible to keep quiet, some days. She really was a little too good. Which is why she liked to sit by the Rat. The Rat was not good at all . . . Hilarious, inventive, and irresistably rodent-friendly, Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat is a fantastic first novel from acclaimed picture book author Lynne Jonell.