Emmy, the remarkable human girl with the ability to shrink as small as--and into the form of--a rat (first introduced in of Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat) returns for a third high adventure. Raston, Emmy's rat companion, can turn people into rodents with his bite, while his sister, Sissy, gives the antidote with her kisses.
Miss Barmy, Emmy's former evil nanny who must now live out her life in the form of a rat, hatches a diabolical plan with her sidekick, Cheswick Vole. They dupe Emmy and her friends into staying with Emmy's frail, elderly aunts. The situation at the aunts' appears to be quite dire, and the children pitch in to help. Hoodwinking a bat family into capturing Sissy, Miss Barmy then forces her to make skin patches imbued with her kisses (which Jane requires to maintain her human form). One night while searching for Sissy, Emmy and her companions come upon a riverside tavern. They discover that the frowzy rat singing at the bar and nursing a ginger beer is actually Raston and Sissy's long-lost Ratmom, whose magical tears prove both irritating and useful with their fountain-of-youth–like powers.
The tug-of-war for Sissy involves acrobatic plot twists culminating in a madcap, harrowing train ride. When the baddies are trussed up, well, let's just say there are some loose ropes, err, loose ends that hint at more shape-shifter episodes to come. --Bette Wendell-Branco, bookseller emeritus and reviewer