The Little Rat: Individual Story from Tales from a Free-Range Childhood

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This is one story from the collection by Donald Davis, Tales from a Free-Range Childhood. "The Little Rat" is a story of misadventure from author Davis's childhood concerning some trouble he got into when his mother refused to buy him a chemistry set on Christmas.
In his first new book in six years, Donald Davis, considered by many to be the father of family tales, returns to recollections of growing up in the southern Appalachians, and especially of his relationship with his sibling Joe.
Davis has remarked that he “didn’t learn stories, I just absorbed them” from a family of traditional storytellers that has lived on the same western North Carolina land since 1781. Among this collection of 18 chronologically arranged stories, Davis explains why 28 second-graders petitioned the school board to reestablish paddling as their preferred form of punishment, instead of the new policy of “suspension.” He also spins family tales about how his mother was finally convinced to give his brother Joe’s naturally curly, “wasted-on-a-boy” hair its first cut; how he and his cousin Andy got fired from their job of “watching the baby”; how his brother convinced their mother to adopt her first cats; and how he got a chemistry set designated for children over 10 when he was only eight.
Through his tender, often humorous stories about his life experiences, Davis captures the hearts and minds of readers while simultaneously evoking their own childhood memories. One reviewer described Davis’s storytelling style this way: “He invites each listener to come along, to pull deep inside for one’s own stories, to personally share and co-create the common experiences that celebrate the creative spirit.” Even if you can’t enjoy Davis’s storytelling live, his written voice is so strong that you will actually hear these tales as you read them.