DONALDSON, Julia. The Highway Rat. illus. by Axel Scheffler. 32p. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine. Apr. 2013. RTE $16.99. ISBN 978-0-545-47758-1. PreS-Gr 2–Inspired by Alfred Noyes’s “The Highwayman,” Donaldson tells the tale of a swashbuckling rat with mask and cape who stops hapless travelers and takes their food at sword point. While he prefers chocolates, puddings, and cakes, he steals clover from a rabbit, nuts from a squirrel, and even hay from his own horse. “The creatures who traveled the highway/grew thinner and thinner and thinner,/While the Highway Rat grew horribly fat/from eating up everyone’s dinner.” A brave duck in a red kerchief lures the thief to a distant cave, supposedly full of biscuits and buns. While he follows the echoes of his own voice deeper and deeper into the dark, the duck jumps on Rat’s horse and takes the stolen food back to her hungry friends. Eventually he emerges on the other side of the hill, becomes a reformed rodent, and finds work sweeping the floor at a cake shop. Scheffler’s rich, dark palette creates a brooding atmosphere just right for the Highway Rat’s dastardly deeds, and his cartoon-style characters are a wonderful tongue-in-cheek contrast. Humorous details abound, including Gruffalo cookies in the cake shop from this British duo’s The Gruffalo (Puffin, 2006). This well-paced, rollicking tale is a guaranteed storytime treat.–Mary Jean Smith, formerly at Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN