Rats to the Rescue: The Unlikely Heroes Making Cambodia Safe

Gr 1-4–This book is all about the need to clear land mines and why people feel compelled to do this highly dangerous work. It also explains how rats can help, working more quickly and more safely than humans can: readers learn that rats have a highly developed sense of smell; they are smart, easy to train, and not very heavy, which makes them a great choice for sniffing out land mines. Countries where land mines have been used, like Cambodia, have long tried to find efficient and safe methods of getting rid of them, and rats have been a great answer. The book also has more specific information about how the authors and the illustrator learned about and lived with land mines. There are maps that show where Cambodia is as well as Tanzania, which is where the rats are trained. It’s a very interesting and compelling story that most young readers will be unaware of, and many will find fascinating.