You’re bound to know a Pamela Butchart fan – someone who adores school-based hijinks of the silliest kind – and Ben Davies’ series kicks off in the same high-energy, slapstick style. Lenny Lemmon is the wildcard of the class, with a huge imagination and a healthy disrespect for rules. He does try to do the right thing, but more often than not it’s going to land him in trouble – and in this story, it’s going to land him in a rather big patch of gruel. Lenny’s class is doing “Victorian School Day”, and what would be more original and impressive to bring in than a giant, scruffy wild rat?

Obviously Ratty is not going to be a nice, placid, stay-in-the-cage kind of rat, is he? With best friend Sam and the mysterious new girl Jessica Conrad (who claims to be a professional rat-catcher from America), Lenny and Ratty cause absolute, sticky, disgusting pandemonium across the entire school. Including the exceptionally very secret hidden bit…

This is a great book for Y3 upwards; packed with crazy illustrations, gags and facepalm moments. It would be a nice addition to any library and would work well as a read-aloud for a book club or to read to a class, especially at the beginning of term.