Saul is hauled out of bed by the police and charged with hurling his father from a top-floor window. While lying dazed in a cell, he is visited by a sharp-featured stranger who leads him on a gravity-defying escape. After introducing himself as Saul's uncle, King Rat, he explains Saul is half rat.

The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin. Ages 9+. Winner of 2004 Newbery Medal.

Shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1978 this novel centres on Florence Green, a middle-aged widow and her attempts to run a bookshop in a small East Anglian town.

Did you know that one pair of rats has the potential for 15,000 descendants in a year? That rats' teeth are harder than steel? Focusing on such questions, this book reveals the many ways rats' lives mirror those of humans. It is an account of a year spent in a garbage-strewn alley in lower Manhattan.

Time is running out for Mrs Frisby. She must move her family of mice before the farmer destroys their home. But her son, Timothy, is too ill to survive the move. Help comes in the unexpected form of a group of mysterious, super-intelligent rats. But the rats are in danger too, and little by little Mrs Frisby discovers their extraordinary past.

Benjamin is a scapegoat. Under the official title of Quality Controller, he works for the complaints department of a large Parisian department store where he bears the brunt of customer complaints. When a bomb goes off in the toy department, he finds himself the prime suspect.