Review #44: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C.O'brien

Title: O’brien, Robert C. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. Atheneum. 1971. 233 pages. Paperback $15.25. ISBN 978-0-689-20651-1
Genre: Fiction
Reading Level/Interest Level: 5.4/ Grades 3-6
Awards: Newbery Medal 1972
Similar Titles: The Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCarmillio, The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary, The Witched by Roald Dahl
 

When the widow mouse, Mrs. Frisby, has an invalid child and is unable to move her home before the farmer ploughs the field into it, she has no choice but to seek help elsewhere, with the help of a scatterbrained crow, and an injured white mouse, that will change her life forever. She begins to find of the strange circumstances behind her husband’s former life as she seeks out the help of an advanced race of a , walking, talking, educated, partially industrialized colony of rats, led by one called Nicodemus, who have been living underground, unbeknownst to humans, so they think, thanks to the experiments conducted on them by the National Institute of Mental Health  or NIMH.

While the rats agree to help her move her home, the adventure does not end there. Instead, the plots thickens, as Mrs. Frisby is captured and unfamiliar humans suddenly determine there is a rat problem, and seek out the farmer, offering their exterminator services to end the colony of rats, constantly leaving the reader in doubt of the actual purpose of these men. Are they exterminators or could they be agents of NIMH, set out to destroy the only living proof of their experiments? Regardless of their identities, now it is the rats turn for help, and only Mrs. Frisby can help.

Here is another tale of a brave little mouse, this time a single mother, left alone to care for her children and her home, back when such subjects were not readily ventured into. Showing the strength, perserverance and determination to do what is right of one individual, no matter how small or how heavy her burden, is heartwarming and character building for the reader. While this novel is darker in tone, I believe, than even Despereaux, it is no less exciting, virtuous or suspenseful.  

 

This book, having read it as a child, has become a part of my identity in the way that decades old classics have before it, leaving an indelible image on my psyche. No matter the circumstances, I encounter in life, I often thing,  if little Mrs. Frisby can do it, so can I.