The Discorats
by Geoffrey Beitz and David Wood
Methuen Children’s Books, 28 pages, 1985.
Vintage 1980s love and rare children’s books featuring surreal illustrations — it’s rare that these two of my particular collecting worlds collide. But in The Discorats they most certainly do.
Let’s forget for a moment that disco was definitely dead by the time The Discorats was published, and simply marvel at the story.
It’s after-hours at the Cellar Disco. The (human) patrons have called it a night, and now it’s time for the rats to take over. They assume their roles: Fat Rat Sam is the manager, Ratrick the “bar-rat,” Dave the Rave is the DJ, Hattie the wannabe dancer and my favourite, Big Brian the bouncer. Big Brian keeps control of the growing line outside the club with excellent lines like “No aggro” and threats of tailing-pulling.
A disco-dancing competition is the night’s main attraction, with posh rats going up against mafia (or in this case “rafia”) rats, and everyone else, including lovely Hattie. The outcome is as expected.
The story of the discorats is of course predictable in that children’s book, happy-ending way, but the very fact that The Discorats exists as a book is spectacular. The strange, anthropomorphic rat-world mimics ours down to the oh-so-’80s outfits the characters are illustrated wearing.
Like so many kids’ books, it’s the illustrations that make the story shine, and The Discorats is no exception. If I wasn’t so squeamish about cutting books apart I’d certainly frame and hang a series of the full-page art. Pictures of dancing rats decked out in 1980s fashion finery is exactly what my living room needs.
