I Was a Rat! Or, The Scarlet Slippers

By: Philip Pullman, Peter Bailey

Narrated by: Robert Glenister

Brought to you by Penguin.

I was a Rat! Roger insists, and insists . . . In fact, when Bob the cobbler and his washerwoman wife, Joan, find the young boy abandoned on their doorstep, these are the only words he says. And he does have ratty behaviour, it's true.

Staying with Bob and Joan, however, Roger learns quickly to behave more like a human child. They try to find his parents, but the orphanage, police and hospital all have nothing on their records about a lost boy in the city. What is the truth? As more and more people find out about Roger the mysterious rat-boy he faces more and more danger. But sometimes help comes from the most unexpected of places . . .

© Philip Pullman 2018 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critic reviews

[A] perfectly shaped story . . . a fairy tale, an adventure, a parody and certainly a book that shines

Fairy tale, satire, slapstick humour and suspenseful melodrama . . . a glorious tale

A comic genius of children's fiction