Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien is a wonderful children's novel that I have read to every child I have ever known. This is a story about love, trust and courage. It is based on scientific experiments that were conducted on rats and mice from the 1940's through the 1960's. The premise is that the experiments made the animals intelligent, and they escaped from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The former laboratory rats have taken up residence under a rose bush on the Fitzgibbon farm. Mrs. Frisby is a widow raising her three children on the farm. Spring comes early to the farm and Mr. Fitzgibbon prepares to plow his fields. The same field that the Frisby's live in. Normally the family would move to their summer home but Timothy has pneumonia and would not survive the move. Mrs. Frisby goes to visit Mr. Ages, one of the original lab mice, who is somewhat of a "mad" scientist. He gives her some medicine for the boy and tells her that she is going to have to move either her family or her house. On her way back home she meets a crow named Jeremy when she saves him from the farmers cat Dragon. Jeremy suggests that she visit the Great Owl to ask for advice about what to do with her home. Mrs. Frisby is flown to the owl by Jeremy. At first the owl says he cannot help her until he discovers that she is the widow of Jonathan Frisby, he then tells her to go and see the rats in the rosebush. When she gets to the rosebush and enters the rats labyrinth this is our first inkling that the rats from NIMH might not be like other rats. They have a mechanized world, including heating, elevators and lights. They have tapped into the farms electricity. There are many human conveniences. This is where she meets Nicodemus the leader of the rats. He tells her about how they came to live on the farm, about their escape from NIMH and about her husband and how he was killed by the farmers cat. He also explains their plan to abandon their home in the rosebush for a completely independent colony that will not have to rely on steeling electricity. Their is a splinter faction of rats led by Jenner, that does not want this plan to happen. At one point they try to steal a motor from the local hardware store and are electrocuted. The rats agree to help Mrs. Frisby move her house, and she offers to help them drug the cat, Dragon. She is caught while trying this and put in a cage. She overhears farmer Fitzgibbon talking and finds out that there are exterminators coming, possibly from NIMH to get rid of the rats. Once she is rescued she informs Nicodemus that they must leave immediately. The rats remove all traces of their sophisticated colony and escape. Mrs. Frisby's house is moved and all is right with the world.
I didn't want the story to end. I could see everything about the rat's home in the rosebush. This story was about facing your fears and not judging "people" by preconceived ideas. It made me think about animal testing and experiments, and what we may really be doing to those creatures. But it was also a great fantasy and made me want mice to really be able to talk to each other like that.
David, I LOVE this book as well. I used to read it aloud to my students.
ReplyDeleteAnother teacher recommended it to me, and I ignored her recommendation for a long time because I thought, "Mice that talk, live in labs?" that doesn't sound interesting. . . boy was I wrong. It definitely earns in Newbery Medal award (hard to believe that was awarded to this book in 1972!). I first listened to this book on Audio CD's driving to and from work.