Oh, Rats!

A moving animal-fantasy kids will want to squirrel away for repeated reading. Booklist(starred review)

When a hawk snatches up an adventurous squirrel named Phoenix, hes ready to kiss his tail goodbye. But what should have been a death sentence becomes the beginning of a sweeping big-city adventure in this charming (Kirkus Reviews) novel by National Book Award nominated author Tor Seidler.

Phoenix is a pretty big deal in his neck of the woods: The largest in his litter with the most lustrous fur and by far the bushiest tail, hes one of the most sought-after squirrels in New Jerseywhich makes his kidnapping by hawk even more dramatic.

Luckily, the hawk doesnt have the best grip. Unluckily, he drops Phoenix on a freshly-tarred street in downtown Manhattan. Now stripped of his gorgeous golden-brown coat, Phoenix looks like nothing more than a common sewer rat. Fortunately for Phoenix, its not a pack of sewer rats that find him (theyre a notoriously surly bunch), but rather wharf rats.

Taken in by siblings Lucy and Beckett, Phoenix is welcomed into a rat pack living in abandoned piers on the Hudson. But when they learn of plans to demolish the piers, Phoenix is swept up in a truly electrifying scheme to stop the humans from destroying his new friends home.