I wrote this story for my granddaughter Sullivan who is learning to read and very interested in the printed word. It is full of examples of rhyming and alliteration, two important skills for literacy.
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This story is about a rat named Pat. She went to school with other animals. There were rabbits, squirrels, and gophers in her class.

Her teacher was an owl. Her name was Ms. Wise. She was reading the class a story about the Cat in the Hat.

Her spelling tests had lots of words that rhymed. There was bat, cat, flat, hat, mat, sat, that, and vat.

There were also words that all started with the same letter or sound. There was bat, boat, and bite.

There was cat, coat and kite. Kite started with the same sound as cat and coat but with a different letter.

There was flat, float and flight. Those words all started with the same letter or sound, and they rhymed with other words.

There was hat, heat and hit, mat, meet and mitt, sat, seat, and sit. These sets of three words all started with the same sound, and they rhymed with each other.

And then to keep spelling from being boring, Ms. Wise added that, this and them along with vat, vote, and viper.

“Viper is a snake, and you can remember viper because it rhymes with windshield wiper,” Ms. Wise said, “or water vapor, which is water that has evaporated.

And viper is different from visor that keeps the sun out of your eyes that is evaporating the water into vapor.

Ms. Wise liked to stay up late marking their spelling tests. Sometimes Ms. Wise dozed off in class during the day.

“I am a night owl, I would prefer teaching night school,” she would say. And then she would start thinking up new words for spelling tests.

Night, now it rhymes with bite, kite, fight, and it starts with the same sound as note, neat, knit, even if knit starts with a different letter than note and neat.

The animals got tired of listening to all of the words. Give us a break, they were thinking, enough of these words that rhyme or start with the same sound or letter. Who cares?

They wanted to go out for recess where the rabbits could hop, the squirrels climb trees, and gophers dig holes.

“You act just like animals,” Ms. Wise would say in a disgusted voice, thinking that they should rather learn about spelling, reading and writing than hopping, climbing and digging holes.

Pat the rat wanted to be the teacher’s pet. “I want to learn to spell, read and write,” Pat the rat said to Ms. Wise, hoping that she would be pleased and make Pat the teacher’s pet.

“Can I please be your pet?” Pat the rat politely asked Ms. Wise.

Ms. Wise gave her a pat on the head, right between her little pointed ears and above her beady little eyes.

Ms. Wise said, “I do not want a rat for a pet even a rat named Pat who wants to learn to spell, read and write. I would rather have a cat.

“Oh rats, Oh drats,” said Pat the rat. “I feel sad and mad, and not glad,” she said to Ms. Wise, hoping she would notice that Pat had used three words that rhymed and might still want her, Pat the rat, to be her pet instead of a cat.

“I wish I were a cat,” Pat the rat informed her parents. “So that I could be the teacher’s pet. She will not make me her pet if I am a rat even if I learn to spell, read and write.”

“If you were a cat you could not live with us, your mother is a rat and I am a rat,” her dad said. “We do not want a cat in our rat house.”

Her mother gave Pat a pat, between her little pointed ears and above her beady little eyes, and so did her dad. “Learn to spell, read and write, so that you can be the very best rat there is, not just to be the teacher’s pet.

Pat the rat did as she was told. She studied words so that she could learn to spell, read and write, not just to be the teacher’s pet.

The other animals would spend their lives hopping, climbing or digging holes in the outdoors. Pat the rat, who learned so spell, read and write, would go on to work in an important research laboratory at a famous university.

At night, when everyone had gone home, Pat the rat would sneak out into the library at the famous university and read about herself in the articles that a scientist had written about rats and how smart they are.

A rat is much smarter than a cat, Pat read, even though people would rather have a cat for a pet than a rat.

No one in the important labouratory suspected that Pat could spell, read and write. They just thought she was a regular rat who worked for the scientist and spent her nights resting and sleeping in her very small one room efficiency apartment in the basement of the important labouratory at the famous university.

But Pat was no regular rat. She liked to write e-mails to Mrs. Wise to show her how well she had taught Pat to spell, read and write.

Pat would write, Dear Mrs. Wise, this is Pat the rat. Please say a word and I will say three back. Every time the words will rhyme or start the same way. Play with me, and see how I can spell, read and write. Let’s give it a try.