Pay the Piper: a rock 'n' roll fairy tale by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple

Do you remember the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, the rat catcher, who would promise to rid towns of rats in exchange for a great sum of money? He would play his flute, attracting all the rats and micein town, then lead them to the river and drown them. It wasn’t until all the rats were gone that the townsfolk realized that what they had seen were not rats at all, but rather their own children!
But this is just a mere fairy tale, right? And fairy tales are make believe, right? Sheer fiction parents tell their children as bedtime stories. Right! Just ask Callie, a reporter for her school paper in Northhampton, Massachusetts. Real journalism sticks only to the cold, hard facts.
So here are the facts Callie has.
1. Brass Rat, the famous rock ‘n’ roll band, performed last night to a sell-out crowd.
2. She was backstage to get an exclusive interview.
That’s it. It should be easy to write a killer story. However, there’s something troubling Callie, something she just can’t put her finger on, something hypnotic about the music coming from lead singer Peter Gringas’s flute. Why did those rats in the parking lot seem pulled to it? And what did the conversation she overhead the band having with the concert promoter mean?
In order to finish the story, Callie must bail on trick-or-treating with her younger brother Nick. However, when he and the rest of the neighborhood fail to return, the story finally becomes clear.
What happened to Nick and the rest of the neighborhood children on this Halloween night? And what role does the band Brass Rat play? Will Callie be able to uncover the story in time? To discover the facts read Pay the Piper: a rock ‘n’ roll fairy tale by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple.