SPACE STATION RAT

In a space station far far away lives one escaped lab rat with an extraordinary knowledge of all things human, one boy who is ignored by his scientist parents and one single-minded robot named Nanny. Rat has escaped and he’s starving. Though he understands human speech and all things scientific, his stomach is in charge and he’s forced to look for help from the only place he can think of—the boy. The boy leaves crumbs, messes around with his computer and is bored on the space shuttle as his parents frantically try to avoid meteors and study the sun. When Nanny shows her true identity and becomes Rat’s most feared enemy, Rat has to trust the boy for more than food. Plodding plot lines mar a good idea and threaten to leave new readers lost in space. However, true science geeks will enjoy the details of life on a space shuttle. If this leads those readers to Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, all the better. (Fiction. 8-12)