Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien is one of my all time favorite books. I distinctly remember visiting my cousins in Texas when I was 11 (they had just come off the mission field in Cameroon) and my Uncle Skip was reading this to his three kids, and I was hooked. (It was also one of the best trips I’ve ever taken, made all the better by this book.) The story is about Mrs. Frisby, a mouse, who needs to save her sick son with help from a mysterious group of rats who have kept to themselves and don’t act like ordinary rats. As she bravely goes to seek their help she discovers that her late husband Jonathan’s story was wrapped up with these rats, and their futures are intertwined as well.
What I liked. Everything about this book is awesome: the fun animals, the imaginative Utopian Rat society, it has mystery and a little sci fi, great pacing, and a variety of strong characters.
What was interesting. I think rereading it what stood out to me most is that the main character (or you could argue one of the main characters) is a mom. She’s motivated out of love and determination to help her sick child, and that is fairly unique for children’s literature, or it hasn’t been a theme of any previous Newberies.
What were some limitations. This isn’t a limitation per se, but tragically Robert C O’Brien (a pen name for Robert Leslie Carroll Conly to avoid contract infringement with his work for National Geographic) died only a year after this book was published, his second children’s book. (He left two partially completed books for adults that his wife and daughter helped to finish). What a gift to the world of (children’s) literature was lost with his death. (Although it seems that perhaps he only left his work at National Geographic because his glaucoma had progressed so severally. But what a gift he left in this book, and Silver Crown is a strong work as well.)
Similarity to other Newbery winners. It is a pretty unique book. But as far as having talking animals in a good story, it does share that with The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle and Rabbit Hill. In terms of excellent story telling and being one of my favorite books it shares that with A Wrinkle in Time, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The Chronicles of Prydain (The High King) and Holes. Outside of the Newberies, I’d say it shares a bit of the feeling of Richard Adams’ Watership Down.
What it teaches me as a writer. One thing that stands out to me is that in the disastrous animated film adaption of this (seriously terrible), they made one of the rats much more of an evil villain (almost wizard like). And the story didn’t need that. The Rat Jenner was an antagonist in the book for sure, but there were so many challenges for Mrs. Frisby and the Rats to overcome: the weather, the sickness of Timothy, the plowing schedule of the Fitzgibbons, the cat Dragon, visiting the owl, the scientists at NIMH, the issue of using the humans’ electricity, and the divided opinions within the Rat community on how to live.
The book didn’t need an evil-sorcerer-rat-bad-guy. Not that you can’t have an amazing evil sorcerer (like say Voldemort), but I think the film makers might have felt that having so many challenges without a central evil villain was too much for kids to handle. But adversity and creating narrative drive through tension can have diverse and complex sources, and if it’s done well, kids (and adults for that matter) don’t mind coming along for the ride.
Have you read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH? What are your favorite books with talking animals?
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My second-grade teacher read this to my class, and I read it to my boys. Love it so much! The movie was my first experience in being disappointed by an adaptation (I think it came out the same year my teacher read it — some time in the early 80s).
I watched the movie for the first time a couple years ago, and it was disappointing to me as an adult (even though Evan warned me that it was going to be bad), I can imagine as a kid it would feel like of like a betrayal of something so good (I sort of feel that way about the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, since it’s my favorite book). I must be a book person, since I just cannot understand how some books that seem to perfectly suited to adaption on screen get rewritten poorly (like the Hobbit!). It was already so good. But I did hear an author once say that no matter how bad the movie adaptation, it’s still really good for a book (sales wise) to be made into a movie. So, hopefully it just let more people know about it.
I agree this is a fabulous book, and one of my favorites of ANY genre for ANY age. Besides your objection of having an uber-evil bad guy in the movie, I add that I really disliked the addition of a MAGIC amulet to the movie. The POINT of the book is Mrs. Frisby’s courage, and the magic stuff just negated that completely I think.
Oh yeah! I totally agree. I feel like Mrs Frisby’s bravery was really tremendous!