Joe Rat

This is a brilliant book for young people to read about times gone by in London, around the markets and the River Thames.

I found this book very humbling when we think of how young people today seem to get everything that they want, and yet this story tells the otherside of life.  The life of lads who had to search in all the foulest places just to gain a penny or two to be able to eat and sleep in a dry place.

The book also reminded me of Oliver Twist and Fagin's gang when in the film you see the place where  Fagin lived and the terrible sewage lying in the streets.  Mark Barratt has really shown the reality of what life was like for the children, drunks and beggers on the streets all those years ago in Victorian Times.  I can not imagine anything so horrible and degrading as to have to search a sewer just to raise a few pence.

The language and the writing are very well thought out and the story goes at a very fast pace. When you get to the end you will never believe the outcome! The book is real a eye opener and a brilliant reminder of what we don't have to cope with in todays world.  

I am very glad that I had the opportunity to not only read this book and review it but I think Mark Barratt has put into this story all those things that many others are to scared to do. Talking about the use of children, to the benefit of others, and the wicked use of children to do the adults dirty work.