The Christmas Rat

By Avi

Book Overview

Alone in his apartment during Christmas vacation, 11-year-old Eric finds himself caught in a battle between a strange exterminator and the rat he wants to kill.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689838425
• ISBN13: 9780689838422
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.6" x 0.7" x 5.7"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

The Chistmas Rat Review by Lisa

The Christmas Rat is a great book. This story takes place in a ampartment bilding on a snowy winter day.What happen in this book is a boy named Eric stays home for Christmas break. A exsterminator named Anjela comes to his home. Eric notices Anjela has a cross bow! Anjela tells him if he sees a rat call me. Eric went to the apartment basement to get the christmas thing when he sees a rat! Eric calls Anjela about the rat. Anjela comes over and makes up a silly deal with Eric witch was that Eric would promis to help him Eric says yes. 3 days later Eric goes to the basement to get the last f the christmas decorations. He sees all these little posion pellots linning the walls. He knew it was for the rat. Then Eric fells sorry for the rat after all it was christmas so, he picks up all the pellots and throws them in the trash. Then Anjela finds out and calls Eric and tells him he's a trator for not keeping his promis, even after Eric told him his feelings for the rat and how it was christmas and Anjela told Eric to not mess with his work or else. Then on Christmas Eve Eric goes to the basement to cheak on the rat and Anjela pops out and says"I told you not to mess with me!", and then starts to fire at him with his cross bow! Eric make s it out of the basement alive. The next morning in Eric's stocking he found a letter writen by Anejla it said, you win. You and the rat still live Merry Christmas. And thats how the conflict ended.

Fantastic, Enternaining Book

I think this book is a wonderful story to read because of the action and would be a good time to read this book during the winter because the setting of the story is in snow and in a basement. This book is about a person called Eric who is stuck in his house because of a blizzard, when a rat comes along and changes his Christmas vacation. A guy called Anje Gabrial who is a rat exterminator encounters Eric and tells him to go to the Eden's Apartment and check if there is a rat in the basement. Eric is surprised that the exterminator has poison bombs, brown pellets, and a crossbow. When Eric goes to the basement of the Eden's Apartments, what does he see? A rat! But Eric realizes that the rat needs to have an enjoyable, pleasant Christmas instead of being killed. Eric then hides the rat near the elevator so when Gabriel comes he won't be able to find the rat and kill him. There's one problem: Anje Gabrial is a maniac who says he's going to hurt Eric unless he gets what he wants - a dead rat! Will the Christmas rat survive or die? Eric's decisions will determine the rat's fate. This story has a lot of twists, turns, and icy hot action. I felt blown away by the action between each character, and the power and tone they have in their voices. Their dialogue had a lot of feeling and showed me as a reader when the characters in the book were feeling angry, distressed, unsure, and calm. It is an adventure book and I would recommend it for those who enjoy books and stories about Christmas and rats. I think this book is a wonderful story to read because of the action and would be a good time to read this book during the winter because the setting of the story is in snow and in a basement. Anyone who has had a friend who sick will relate to Eric's problem. The author of this book is Avi, who has written a lot of fantastic books like Midnight Magic, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Nothing but the Truth, and Ragweed. The Christmas Rat is one of my favorite books by Avi and would rate this book 9.5 out of 10. -J.P.

Riddle has me 'riddled'!

I think it was so cool that there was a riddle at the end of the book, but it would be nice to know the answer, or at least something about how to figure it out. What's up with that?!!! It left me kind of frustrated!

The Christmas Rat

This book was rreally great. I eccspecially liked the basement scenes. Anjela Gaibrail was a little spooky. This book was really , so I did a school book report on it.cool

A Ratty Christmas for Eric

Who else but creative genius Avi could craft such a spellbinding story with only a very average middle-schooler, an exterminator and a rat? In this harrowing tale, a young boy and an exterminator join forces to hunt down a rat which has been plaguing the child's apartment building. Engaged in a seek and destroy mission, Anjela Gabrail, aka The Angel Gabriel, enlists the boy to help oppose the rat, "or pay the penalty...So help me God." When the boy decides, however, that he would prefer to let the rat live, Anje turns on him. In a dark twist, the hunter becomes the hunted. Anje has a crossbow. Eric's in the dark. And it's Christmas. As an intellectual exercise for adults, The Christmas Rat receives my highest honors. As a lesson for budding adolescents, it is a compelling reminder Never Ever to talk to strangers. This book is recommended for readers ages nine to twelve - rest assured, not one will come away from this book untouched. For me only one aching questions remains: Why couldn't the boy tell his parents?