The Travelers' Guide to African Customs & Manners: How to converse, dine, tip, drive, bargain, dress, make friends, and conduct business while in sub-Saharan Africa

Book Description

Business travelers and vacationers alike are heading to the burgeoning continent of Africa in ever-increasing numbers. But, for the American traveler, there are few places on the earth that present more cultural difference than Africa. For example, how do you know which countries will consider it perfectly sensible for you to wear a safari outfit--and which will take it as an insult? How do you know which countries are strict in observing Muslim or Jewish or tribal holidays, during which time no business appointments are possible? How should you behave when invited into a tribal home? Will they give you utensils, or should you eat with your fingers like everyone else--and do you eat with your right or left hand? What's the proper amount to tip your safari guide?This well-researched and fascinating guide provides all the dos and taboos for travelers venturing into Botswana, Cameroon, Conte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganada, and Zimbabwe. Topics covers includes: conversations, telephones, currency, transportation, meals, hotels, business, private homes, holidays, legal matters, key phrases. This fascinating and invaluable guide will lessen the stress and heighten the enjoyment of anyone's trip to Africa.

Book Description

Winner of the 2001 Carnegie Medal

One rat, popping up here and there, squeaking loudly, and taking a bath in the cream, could be a plague all by himself. After a few days of this, it was amazing how glad people were to see the kid with his magical rat pipe. And they were amazing when the rats followed hint out of town.

They'd have been really amazed if they'd ever found out that the rats and the piper met up with a cat somewhere outside of town and solemnly counted out the money.

The Amazing Maurice runs the perfect Pied Piper scam. This streetwise alley cat knows the value of cold, hard cash and can talk his way into and out of anything. But when Maurice and his cohorts decide to con the town of Bad Blinitz, it will take more than fast talking to survive the danger that awaits. For this is a town where food is scarce and rats are hated, where cellars are lined with deadly traps, and where a terrifying evil lurks beneath the hunger-stricken streets....

Set in Terry Pratchett's widely popular Discworld, this masterfully crafted, gripping read is both compelling and funny. When one of the world's most acclaimed fantasy writers turns a classic fairy tale on its head, no one will ever look at the Pied Piper -- or rats -- the same way again!

Customer Reviews:

Is this book really for kids?.......2007-07-05

I found this book to be immensely entertaining. Despite relatively clean jokes, this doesn't really seem all that different from the rest of the Discworld series, in terms of reading difficulty. However, I imagine I might say otherwise, were I still in elementary school.

Pratchett.......2007-06-14

What can I say, it is Terry Pratchett. As with all things written or produced by this strange man: It is outstanding.

Not for kiddies.......2006-12-27

I read this when it came out, thinking that perhaps it might be OK to share with my children. Note, please, that it was not marketed or labeled as young adult fiction when I bought it. I found it to be one of the darkest and least funny of the discworld novels, and not at all appropriate for my kids at that time. I didn't think about it again until, to my horror, my sister-in-law gave a copy to my ten-year-old son. My thirteen-year-old might be OK with the cruelty, starvation, cannibalism, animal pit-fighting, and so forth, but not the 10-year-old. This book is deep Pratchet, and as such, not for children. I was appalled to see that it is now being sold as a children's book. I would never offer this book to someone in middle school or younger unless I knew him and his reading level very well.

Genuine Pratchett for the younger reader.......2006-11-04

Pratchett keeps his keen edge when writing for a young audience. In this book he's created characters who are relatively complex people trying to shape a society and find meaning in their lives, and oh yeah, they happen to be a colony of rats, led by an alley cat with con-man tendencies. The book is imaginative and engaging, with an adventurous and sometimes creepy story line. Great stuff.

Hey you . . . stupid looking kid . . . .......2006-10-15

Maurice is a great character, exactly what a talking cat would be like. The story is an interesting spin on the story of the piper who plays the rats out of town that is set in Discworld. The story has the wit and humor that all of Terry Pratchett's books have. A really enjoyable read for kid and adult fans of Terry Pratchett. It also has a good moral about working together to solve problems, but really you could ignore that if you wanted . . .

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

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Pratchett amuzes to the last.
Haven't really read it, but noticed a similarity to....
He does better...
Dragging down the curve...
Great Story

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Terry Pratchett
Manufacturer: HarperTeen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0060012331
Release Date: 2001-11-06

Book Description

Winner of the 2001 Carnegie Medal

They'd have been really amazed if they'd ever found out that the rats and the piper met up with a cat somewhere outside of town and solemnly counted out the money.

Customer Reviews:

Pratchett amuzes to the last........2006-01-19

I bought this book a couple of years ago to read to my little brother and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. There were places i literally had to stop because i couldn't catch my breath for the laughter.
I've been a fan of the discworld idea for a while now, having played games and watched an animated production of Soul Music. But this was the first book i'd fully read. And i have to say that it lives up to the hype.
Following the exploits of a boy, a cat, and a group of rodents who go town to town acting like pied pipers. I couldn't get over how they worked the scam. At this next town they're heading to though they get caught up in a little bit of a muddle and it really doesn't dissapoint.
With insane antics the whole way through. Even at one point having the Cat, Maurice, standing face to face with Death and them both going: "Not You Again!"
Its a sweet piece of insanity that i looked forward to coming back to every time we read a new chapter.
I would definately recommend it.

Haven't really read it, but noticed a similarity to...........2004-10-25

Ok, I have not read any of the Discworld series at this point in time, but the title struck me as a bit of an allusion or, oppositely, an originator for Mr. Bobo's Mouse Circus in Neil Gaimans "Coraline" (great book, for a kids book)...does it interest anyone to know that Gaiman and Pratchett intersected about 1990 or so to write a novel together, "Good Omens" (another kick-nuts book)?

He does better..........2004-05-19

Maurice is a very clever talking cat. He travels from town to town in Discworld with a band of taking rats and a boy (who probably talks the least). Together, they run a "Pied Piper" scam. Now they've just arrived in Bad Blinitz, but what they don't now is this town is different from the others they've swindled. They join up with the Mayor's daughter (probably the best character) to try and solve the strange going ons the town is experiencing. Got quite confusing in a couple of bits, which is one of the reasons I gave it a lower rating. Also, I felt like Pratchett's usual originality was sort of stifled in it.

Dragging down the curve..........2004-01-22

I'm a diehard Pratchett fan, and so when I bought this book after reading all the novels (up to The Last Hero), I felt distinctly let down. This wasn't a bad book in any way except comparing it to Terry's earlier works of two decades of witty retorts and spliced fables. This book has the same sort of premise, but has a distinct 'lite' feel about it, presumably for the younger audience he seems to be aiming for. The sad truth is this is not a kid's story, and the stripped-down vocabulary does not do justice to Terry's writing skills. All in all, this is, I say again, not a children's book and will not pass muster for the teenagers and the adults: It winds up in a no-man's land in the middle.

Great Story.......2004-01-07

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is a satirical readaptation of The Pied Piper of Hamlin.

Maurice and his educated rats lived near a wizard university where Maurice would beg kitchen scraps and the rats lived in their garbage pile. Somehow one of the failed spells made them self aware and able to speak and reason. After Maurice meets Keith or the stupid looking kid as he called by the animals, he comes up with a plan for the three parties to go into business with one another. Essentially the rats invade a town and Maurice and the boy playing his pennywhistle show up to save the day.

In Bad Blintz, they discover a conspiracy amongst the rat catchers that threatens to destroy them all and must find a way to get the mayor and the constabulary to listen to them.

This book is very funny especially Maurice. Pratchett really got into a cat's head and brought him to life. It is a well-written fairy tale deserving of a place of honor! Highly recommended!

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Don't eat the green wobbly bit

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (New Windmill)
Terry Pratchett
Manufacturer: Heinemann Educational Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0435131001

Customer Reviews:

Don't eat the green wobbly bit.......2007-02-26

Let me give you an example of how seriously this author can mess with your mind: I was watching a CNN news clip concerning a New York City Taco Bell restaurant that was infested with rats, and I actually leaned forward to see if I could spot the tap-dancing rat (his name is Sardines).

Pratchett rules!

"The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents" is about a leader (Hamnpork, not to be mistaken for Moses) who dies before he enters the Promised Land (an island without humans). The holy book of his people ("Mr. Bunnsy Has an Adventure") is torn apart and thrown into a sewer. His followers are in disarray. Who can a rat turn to for help?

Well, there's Darktan (picture John Wayne playing a tough-but-tender-hearted-rat-sergeant), who treats his recruits in the trap-disabling squad with a sort of gruff-tough love.

There's also Maurice, the shifty, jiving cat who could be played by Will Smith (with the addition of two chewed-up ears and a case of the mange). Maurice used to hang around the dump behind the Unseen University, where the wizards discarded their trash. He was just a regular alley cat until he ate a rat that had been nibbling candle-ends in the wizard's dump. Now he and the rats can talk and think. Whereas the rats used to eat books, now they read them. Maurice acquires a stupid-looking street musician and together with the rats, they roam from village to village on Discworld, pulling the old Pied Piper scam. The rats invade the targeted village, widdling in the flour, gnawing on the sausages, and (yes) tap-dancing across kitchen floors with a straw hat and cane. The kid with the flute shows up, pipes the rats out of town, and is given a bag of money by the grateful villagers.

Unfortunately for Maurice, his educated rats are acquiring ethics along with intelligence. They decide to hit one more village before retiring to the Promised Island---the village of Bad Blintz in the mountains of Uberwald.

And as all serious Discworld fans know, there are stranger creatures in Uberwald than tap-dancing rats.

I see that this book has been turned into a play, and other subterfuges for educating children, but it's still pretty good Pratchett although a bit preachier than usual. The characters are as weird and wonderful as anything on Discworld and you DON'T want to miss the scene where the stupid-looking kid and his tale-spinning friend confront the real rat catchers. What a perfect revenge!

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Oxford Modern Playscripts)

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The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Oxford Modern Playscripts)
Terry Pratchett , and Stephen Briggs
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Children's | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0198314949

Book Description

Maurice is no ordinary cat. He's amazing. He can think, he can talk...and he has an amazing scam going. And all he needs to pull it off is an army of intelligent rats and one stupid-looking kid. But when his gang enter Bad Blintz, the town they have decided to con next, they soon realize that all is not as it should be - and decide to investigate. Three squads of rats spread out under the town, their mission to dismantle traps, bury poison, do some serious widdling, and to find out exactly what those resident rat-catchers are up to... BLNew, innovative activities specifically tailored to support the KS3 Framework for Teaching English and help students to fulfil the Framework objectives. Activities include work on Speaking and Listening, close text analysis, and the structure of playscripts, and act as a springboard for personal writing BLInsight in the plays themselves by their popular authors and adapters BLAdvice on staging

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The not-so-amazing Maurice?
A cat, some rats, and some stupid looking humans...

THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS
TERRY PRATCHETT
Manufacturer: CORGI CHILDRENS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

Is Discworld ready for educated rats?

Set in the Discworld, a brand new and marvellously eccentric fantasy tale for young readers.

Maurice, an amazing cat, who has survived four years on the toughest streets in the whole of the Discworld, reckons that rats are dumb. Clever, OK, but dumb. Maurice, however, is smart -- smart enough to recognize that there’s a new kind of rat around; rats that have been eating wizards’ rubbish and can now talk. And Maurice is also smart enough to get a pretty amazing idea when he spots a kid playing the flute. Now he has his very own Pied Piper to go with his “plague of rats”. And Maurice’s money-bags are getting fuller and fuller. That is, until the group reaches the far flung village of Bad Blintz.

Customer Reviews:

The not-so-amazing Maurice?.......2003-06-04

From the first few pages of 'The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents', it was clear to me that this book was filled to the brim with wit and charm. Just the very premise is intriguing from the start, and I found myself laughing out loud at several moments throughout the reading of this book. Unfortunately, the book fails to explore of its possibilities, and when I had finished, I felt dissatisfied.

Set in Discworld, which anyone who has ever read a book by Terry Pratchett will be familiar with, a strangely clever tomcat by the name of Maurice moves from town-to-town along with his similarly educated rats, and, as the book often describes him, a Stupid-looking kid named Kieth.

What takes place on their arrival in each town is a scam durative to the familiar tale of the Pied Piper. The rats run loose through the town, being so utterly nasty, that the mayor of the town is only too willing to pay Kieth to lure them out of town with his music. Maurice takes the money, with the promise to split it later, and they continue to the next town--the perfect scam... that is, until they reach the town of Bad Blintz.

The Rats communicate with each other often throughout the book (they are, argueably, the main characters), and often bring up the 'ethics' of the scam they are helping Maurice pull-off--an unfortunate result of their newly aqquired knowledge. This prepared me for a possible revolt--possibly the Rats rising against Maurice and trying to thwart his scam before he can continue. Sadly, Mr. Pratchett avoids the difficult route, and ends the book with a rather long, drawn-out, somewhat anticlimatic ending. In the meantime, the book is filled with several subplots, none of which do the book any good.

'Amazing Maurice' has only its wit and charm to stand on--without it, it really isn't as amazing as you'd expect.

A cat, some rats, and some stupid looking humans..........2003-04-23

This was a really cute story. Basically, a bunch of rats, snacking on wizardly refuse, attain sentience. They also hook up with a sentient cat. They can all speak, learn, and chat with each other, and at the Cat's devious notion, dupe a "stupid looking kid" to play the role of a rat-piper, moving from city to city where the rats act up, the Piper comes in and clears the rats out, and they all get paid.

This time, however, they've stumbled into a town where there's something really evil going on, and all the wisecracking cats, tapdancing rats, and stupid-looking kids in the world might just be in over their heads.

Well written, with a bit of whimsy in nearly every chapter, this was my introduction to the Discworld series, and I dare say I'll be back. The wonderful observations from the rats point of view are fantastic (there's a great part where one of the rats is asked something along the lines of: "Do you know what animal swarms into a place, breeds terribly, spoils everything they can't use and wastes everything they can until there's nothing left?" and the rat says, "Sure. Humans.")

The story gets a bit dark in places for a young reader, though a teen would probably get a laugh. And the mythology lover in me adores the play on the Pied Piper of Hamelin - like Orson Scott Card's "Enchantment" did for Sleeping Beauty, Pratchett did here for the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

'Nathan

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Be Amazed!

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Terry Pratchett
Manufacturer: Corgi Childrens
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 055255202X

Customer Reviews:

Be Amazed!.......2006-02-18

Well, I loved Terry Pratchett's "The Wee Free Men" so much that I thought I would be disappointed by this one. While I still liked those little blue miscreants better, this book was very entertaining. Maurice is simply a delicious character, and I loved the various rats (who, now that I come to think of it, remind me of the Wee Free Men). Of course they have great names, these rats, and that alone is worth the price of admission, as they say. Few authors can make me laugh out loud, but Pratchett is one of them. If you've never read this author, then this is a good book to start with! As far as I'm concerned, you can't go wrong with magic and talking animals.

Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Discworld)

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Dancing rats

Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Discworld)
Terry Pratchett
Manufacturer: Tandem Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding

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ASIN: 0613657578

Customer Reviews:

Dancing rats.......2004-12-07

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series has topped British bestseller lists for years and has a sizable fanbase in the United States as well. Now, with rodent adventure "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents," Pratchett expands Discworld from adult fantasy to young adult fantasy as well.

A boy, a cat, and a troupe of rats arrive at the town of Bad Blintz. But while Keith is normal, feline Maurice and his "educated rodents" are not -- they speak, think, and are self-aware (they ate wizards' garbage). And they have a nice racket going, where the rats pretend to infest a town (they gnaw things and "widdle" on the flour), and Keith poses as a piper to lead them away. But something is wrong with Bad Blintz -- there are no native rats, yet the rat-catchers claim that there's an outright plague of them, and are producing rat-tails to prove it. (They bear a remarkable resemblance to shoelaces)

With the help of a too-imaginative-for-her-own good girl named Malicia, Keith and Maurice begin to investigate why all the rats are gone, and what the rat-catchers are up to. But when they discover the conspiracy, Maurice starts hearing the voice of something down in the sewers -- something evil, something powerful, something that can command hundreds of rats...

Pratchett is reknowned for his new spins on old material. Much as he gave a new spin to MacBeth in "Wyrd Sisters," here he gives a new spin to the "Pied Piper" legend, with some interesting philosophy and his trademarked humor as well. Does the idea of talking animals and preteens make you cringe? Don't -- Pratchett handles it with rare style.

There's plenty of humor in this book, from the names of the rats (Dangerous Beans, Additives, Big Savings, Toxie) to Sardines, the tap-dancing rat with a hat to the incident with the laxatives. His dialogue is still brilliant, especially when he deflates tense scenes ("Think of my dear wife and my four lovely children who'll be without their daddy!" "You're not married. You don't have any children!" "I might want some day!").

But Pratchett doesn't forget the deeper currents either -- the sense of evil he builds up is very genuine, and Spider is one of the most unique fantasy villains he's created. Also good is the attitude of the Changed rats: they cherish their greater intelligence, fear their instincts, and gradually we see them overcome some of those ratty instincts. Rather than eating one of their dead, they bury him like humans do.

Keith is a nice character, seeming dim but surprisingly intelligent. Maurice is the character that Pratchett does best -- he seems, initially, to have no good characteristis, but he's a good person underneath. (With a dirty little secret involving one of the rats) The Educated Rodents are all given individual personalities that Pratchett juggles very well. And Dangerous Beans, a little blind rat, has one of the best scenes in which he confronts the mysterious Spider.

"The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" isn't actually that different from Pratchett's adult fantasies, and older fans of that series will enjoy this one just as much as the kids. Witty, thought-provoking, entertaining.

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The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Terry Pratchett
Manufacturer: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Turtleback

Humorous | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0606277900

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The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Terry Pratchett
Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download
ASIN: B000NOKC42

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (Unabridged)

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The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (Unabridged)
Terry Pratchett
Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download
ASIN: B0002P0E6S

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