The Highway Rat

Product Information

This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise.

He steals clover from a rabbit who has nothing else, a leaf from some ants, even hay from his own horse. He informed the rat that there is a place where the rat can get lots of cakes and biscuits and that they will be much tastier than him. Pastries, puddings, buns, biscuits, nuts, fish, milk, flies and even a bunch of clover and a leaf, the last mentioned from an army of ants! It has provided us with many different discussion points - one child pointed out to me today that the Highway Rat is naughty not only because he steals people's food, but also because he talks to strangers!

So, the rat could not let the duck go without giving him anything, so he expressed his interest in eating the duck instead. However, the duck is able to stave off disaster by telling the Highway Rat that his sister, who lives deep in a nearby cave, has plenty of food that he will enjoy far more.

After snatching other animal’s food, the rat finally comes across a duck, which did not have anything to give him. Bing has proven very popular, winning 'Best Pre-school series' at the 2016 International Emmy awards, and a Bafta nomination at the 2014 Children's Awards. My son is really into emotions, right now, and loves to identify the looks on the faces of the animals, as the Highway Rat avails himself of all their goodies, robbing them along the road. Even during his days as the Highway Rat, and though described as a "baddie" and a "beast," he never looked menacing enough to me.A glorious animated swashbuckler, The Highway Rat is based on the richly imaginative book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, the UK’s bestselling picture book team. The use of sounds created in the story, involve the ready to repeat and join in with the story ‘the highway rat came riding-riding-riding’. It is a fantastic read with beautiful illustrations by Alex Scheffler that brings the characters to life, and the use of rollicking rhyme and repetition create a sing song style flow to the tale making the text approachable and engaging for children.

When Bing got picked up by Cbeebies in 2012, Jeroen became series story director on its first series (78 episodes). I know there are people who like The Gruffalo, by the same author, better, but to me, The Highway Rat is where it's at. I really like the animation made by Magic Light for Christmas 2016 and went on to win a BAFTA the following year.Rob Brydon (the Narrator): “My favourite Donaldson/Scheffler books are a tie between The Highway Rat and The Snail and The Whale.