one another. The difference is the pipers are no ordinary tradesmen. They use magic to promote justice and mercy wherever they go, and live on the rewards they sometimes receive for the help they give. Their magical flutes are similar to recorders in that they are played in front, rather than to the side, like a modern flute. The ends are flared, like the ends of trumpets, and there are no stops; everything is done with the fingers. The pipers use these magical flutes to enter the Pipeworld. Though the pipers never leave the real world (at least not in The Rats of Hamelin), access to the Pipeworld lets them operate in another dimension, layered on top of the world everyone else experiences. In the Pipeworld, pipers use their music and their minds to pull objects with invisible strings, transfer illness from others to themselves, freeze things, summon lightning, control animals, and cast terrible curses. They can also feel other people's souls in the Pipeworld; and if they understand someone's feelings well enough, they can enter that person's mind and experience the memories associated with those feelings. The state of a piper's own mind or soul is very important in the Pipeworld. Spells cast by a piper who has not resolved inner conflicts are vulnerable to attack and theft. In an address to middle-schoolers in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Adam McCune traced the inspiration of the Childrule curse (from the end of the book) to Isaiah 3:4 in the Bible. In the New International Version, the verse reads, "I will make boys their officials; mere children will govern them." In addition to the curses that pipers cast, which have obvious effects and take place immediately, there is another kind of curse in The Rats of Hamelin: the one pronounced by the Old Woman of Aerzen. Though there is no reason to think that the Old Woman has magical powers, she nonetheless foretells a curse that eventually takes place. References External links The Rats of Hamelin homepage Adam McCune & Keith McCune (Moody Publishers author page) Moody Publishers June 26, Hamelin homepage Gachi-Changjo (Shwimbook) www.triune.de cites the Lueneberg manuscript which also serves as the epigraph of The Rats of Hamelin 2005 fantasy novels American fantasy novels American historical novels American young adult novels 2005 American novels Novels set in Germany Fiction set in the 1280s Moody Publishers books Works based on Pied