Funny / The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

• The book actually starts out with a CMOF before the actual story starts, with the opening quote from Mr. Bunnsy Has An Adventure — which is silly, a little saccharine, obviously talking-down-to-the-audience, and actually pretty damn hilarious:
  "One day, when he was naughty, Mr Bunnsy looked over the hedge into Farmer Fred's field and it was full of green lettuces. Mr Bunnsy, however, was not full of lettuces. This did not seem fair."
• Maurice's desperate ad-libbing on the naming of Bad Blintz — claiming that 'Bad' is "foreign for 'bath'" and that the name is proud advertising that the town has a bath — turning out to be right when Malicia specifically names the town bath as a tourist attraction.^note  'Bad' really is foreign for 'bath'; many old German spa towns do indeed have names beginning with 'Bad' for this reason.
• The extremely organized, systematic, paramilitary way in which the Clan musters and dispatches its squadrons of young rat cadets, to set forth on their mission ... to widdle on everything in sight.
  • One of them, Nourishing, gets rerouted from widdling duty to a different job because she was inept. One of the other rats says, "How could you be bad at that?". It turns out that Nourishing has a Shy Bladder.
• The moment when Maurice, having pounced on the Death of Rats to protect Dangerous Beans, stands there for an instant with the Grim Squeaker in his mouth, flabbergasted by just how much trouble he's probably invited on himself by doing so.
• Meta: This was the book that won PTerry the Carnegie Medal, an award for children's literature. Having been sent his medal in the post before the official presentation at a formal dinner, he noticed that it was the same size as a chocolate coin. PTerry made the obvious substitution, and when he was presented with the "medal" at the dinner, proceeded to unwrap and eat it in front of the astonished award committee and guests.
• Malicia wonders why Dangerous Beans is named that. Keith explains that he was called that because once he gained intelligence, he saw a warning label and a can of beans, and then.
  Malicia: "But still, Dangerous Beans? It sounds like he makes you..."

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