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DEAR RAT by Julia Cunningham

DEAR RAT

by Julia Cunningham & illustrated by Walter Lorraine

Pub Date: Aug. 15th, 1961
ISBN: 0380009080
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Andrew, a Wyoming rat, hops a freighter and arrives in France where he soon becomes familiar with the ways of gangland sewer society as well as with the royal rat regime. Andrew's failing however is his honesty. He cannot allow a group of villainous mobsters to steal the jewels from the cathedral at Chartres, nor can he permit the beautiful Princess Angelique to be duped by the mob. He tells his own story from beginning to end and we accompany him as he runs for his life, vanquishes the mob, and wins the love of the fair Princess. Written in a kind of hard-hitting American slang, this is certainly action-packed, though hardly as clever either in conception or style as The Vision of Francois (Aug. 1, 1960), Miss Cunningham's first animal tale also centered around a French cathedral.