Review: Well-told and thoroughly enjoyable retelling.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 5, 2013
While this starts out as a typical retelling of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, it doesn't end that way.  When the mayor hires the piper to get rid of the rats he plans to cheat him of the 20 gold coins he promised and only give the piper five gold coins. Now in the original story, the piper than leads the children away as revenge for the way he was treated and of course we never know what happens to the children (depending on the retelling), but in this version the piper doesn't lead the children away out of revenge, but out of compassion and a determination to teach the townfolk a lesson.  It seems that once the rats left, the townsfolk turned their irritation and anger on their children as well as lying and cheating their neighbors. Once the piper leads the children away he lets them know that in order to get their children back they need to mend their ways. Not only an entertaining story with fun details about talking rats who love to dance, but a fun story about how to treat others.  I appreciated the questions at the end about stranger danger as well. A well-told and thoroughly enjoyable fairy tale retelling that I can highly recommend.