This is late news, but I wanted to be sure our American Audience could actually buy the book in question before I wrote about it.

This years Carnegie Medal award went to Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. The chair of the panel praised it for refusing to make the tale 'cute', "This is an outstanding work of literary excellence - a brilliant twist on the tale of the Pied Piper that is funny and irreverent, but also dark and subversive".
"The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" is a fantasy tale set in 'The Discworld' of Pratchett's main books. Although initially started with the intent to write a short novella for children, the story blossomed into a full-length story of the same quality and character of his other work. And those who believe that any story written to be readable by children will suffer in adult eyes will be shown their mistake by this book.

The book features a cast of 'Animal' characters who can in no way be considered cute, and show fully fleshed out characters [1]. The plot is not standard 'kiddie fare', there is no quest, and there is no fairy tale ending. There is also quite a bit of darkness, and I would not recommend this book for very small children unless they had a parent to hand to make sure they understood it.

But, this is certainly one of the best of Terry's work, and considering even his worst is of a high standard anyway, that's something.

If you like Fantasy, and you like Critters, and you like something with an Edge, Buy This Book.

For those who don't know, Terry Pratchett is the greatest selling, still living, british author. His books sell worldwide. He lives in Wiltshire, and likes using the Internet so long as people dont flame him. There are even Discworld Conventions, one being last weekend in Hinckley[2]. Check out The L-Space Web for more info.

[1] Right down to their green wobbly bits.
[2] Yes, I was there.