The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

"The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" by Terry Pratchett is a witty retelling of the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin and a parody of the folklore genre.

It all started with the fact that the rats, having eaten garbage from the Invisible Academy, suddenly became smart, learned to talk and formed the Clan. And then they met Maurice, an unusual street cat - a brazen, quick-witted and cunning swindler. Together with a gang of rats and a piper boy, Keith, the cat travels through cities and villages, staging an invasion of rats, and then organizing a heroic "rescue" for a reward. A reliable scheme, eh? However, in one of the towns their plan does not work! Something dark and sinister is going on in its dungeons, the townspeople are starving, and local rat catchers are specially breeding large rats... Will the crooks have to save the town?