Review of “Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls,” by Lynne Jonell

“Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls,” by Lynne Jonell is a delightful book about a young girl named Emmy and her adventures with a group of intelligent rats that have mysterious powers. This book is the second in a series that began with “Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat.”

When Emmy first met Raston, he was a sulky and obnoxious classroom pet that liked to bite. But the first time Emmy was bitten by Raston she discovered an amazing thing about Raston: people who are bit by the rat can understand Rat speech.

Emmy helped Raston to escape, and later the strange powers of Raston and other unusual rats helped Emmy to free her household from the sneaky influence of Miss Barmy, an evil nanny who had been poisoning Emmy’s parents so that she could get the family fortune and send Emmy off to the Home for Troubled Girls.

Now the trouble seems to be resolved. Three powerful bites from Raston have turned Miss Barmy into a rat herself! As grateful as Emmy is for the help that Raston and his friends have given her, she finds herself wishing that she didn’t have such a close relationship with the rats. They constantly visit her at inopportune times, even scaring off the girls that that Emmy is trying to make friends with. Every time Emmy’s new potential friends invite Emmy to go somewhere with them she has to turn down the invitation because she has to help the rats with something.

On the one hand Emmy’s rat friends are frustrating her, and on the other hand Emmy is still worried about Miss Barmy. Even though the evil nanny is now a rat, Emmy is still afraid that she has some sort of sneaky plan in mind. It all seems to revolve around the Home for Trouble Girls, that strange institution to which Miss Barmy had planned to send Emmy.

Once again Lynne Jonell has create a fascinating story with a really innovative plot. “Emmy and the Home for Trouble Girls” is similar to its predecessor in that it is chock full of unusual rats, even a Wishing Rat that grants wishes, but only under certain conditions that no one seems to be able to figure out. Just as in “Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat,” the collection of unusual characters adds great depth to the story and allows Lynne Jonell to pull the different ingredients together in new and surprising ways.

One aspect that I really liked about “Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls” was the illustrations by Jonathan Bean. As in “Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat,” Jonathan Bean has drawn a humorous flip animation along the pages of the story.

All considered, I feel that “Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls” is a great fiction book that young readers will enjoy.

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