81000 ( )

Donaldson delivers another delight with the story of a greedy rat who hijacks everyone’s dinner and then has to pay the price. The book is based on Alfred Noyes’s poem “The Highwayman” and shares the same poem structure. As always, Julia Donaldson’s humorous poetic voice is natural and pleasant, never resorting to cliché, forcing a rhyme, or stuttering the rhythm. ( )

I think this books illistrations was the best part. It is very bright, colorful, and had fun animal charicters. I think the pictures matched well with the text. I did not really care for the text of this book because it had a darker plot of a greedy little mouse. I did not really see a point. ( )

A new book from [a:Julia Donaldson|103243|Julia Donaldson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1224775572p2/103243.jpg] about outwitting the bad guy, very much in the spirit of the [b:The Gruffalo|1013383|The Gruffalo|Julia Donaldson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1329674496s/1013383.jpg|999507], and the rhymes are pretty rollicking. I adore her collaborations with [a:Axel Scheffler|52071|Axel Scheffler|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1320949919p2/52071.jpg] and I particularly enjoy the color palette in this one, a new favorite! ( )

The Highway Rat robs all of the animals traveling the road of their food. They become thin and he becomes fat, until one day a smart little duck tricks him. The rat then gets a job at the cake shop and the animals can keep their food. ( )