Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Author | Robert C. O'Brien |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Zena Bernstein |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Rats of NIMH Series |
| Genre(s) | Children, Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Atheneum Books |
| Released | 1971 |
| Media type | Hardback & Paperback |
| Pages | 233 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-689-20651-8 (first edition, hardback) |
| Followed by | Racso and the Rats of NIMH |
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH is a children's book by Robert C. O'Brien, illustrated by Zena Bernstein published in 1971 with many subsequent reprintings, sometimes titled The Secret of NIMH, after the movie which was based on the book. It won the 1972 Newbery Medal.
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
The novel relates the plight of a widowed field mouse, Mrs. Frisby, whose family must trek every year to a summer home to escape the destruction of their winter home, in a cinder block, by ploughing. An unexpected thaw prompts an early move, but their plans are stymied by the deathly illness of her son Timothy, and Mrs. Frisby must venture out for assistance.
[edit] Plot summary
Mrs. Frisby heads to the house of a friend, Mr. Ages, and obtains medicine, and on the return journey, she saves the life of a crow from Dragon, the farmer's cat. The crow, Jeremy, advises her to seek advice from a wise old owl who dwells in the forest.
She accepts a ride from Jeremy and sets out to see the owl in his tree. He has no advice to give her—until hearing her last name. He then suggests she seek help from a nest of rats which lives nearby under a rose bush.
She discovers that the nest is a community of long-lived, super-intelligent rats, who have built a literate and mechanized society. (They have technology such as elevators) She learns of their history from their leader, Nicodemus, who relates their capture, experimentation at a laboratory located at NIMH, where they are given human-level intelligence (among other things, they are able to read, write, and operate complicated machines), and their escape from NIMH. Eventually they migrate to their present state. She learns, too, that her husband had been a companion of the rats, and out of respect for him, Nicodemus agrees to help the Frisby family. (The husband had perished because of Dragon the farmer's cat)
The rats are also preparing to abandon their lifestyle of theft from humans for a new, independent farming colony in a place called Thorn Valley. However, a small group of rats led by Jenner disagree and leave. From this point forward, some elements of the story are left ambiguous. A group of rats (possibly Jenner's group) are later discovered dead in a hardware store, apparently electrocuted by machinery and strange men (possibly scientists from NIMH) take the bodies away. The same men receive news of similar strange rats living outside town and plan to come out to the farm to gas the rats living there as a service to the farm owners. Mrs. Frisby is captured while trying to put sleeping powder into Dragon's food (in order to prevent him from disturbing the rats' moving Mrs. Frisby's house outside), and overhears this news. She then manages to escape with the help of Justin. The rats, with their knowledge of machinery, successfully move Mrs. Frisby's house to a safer side of an adjacent rock. Thanks to Mrs. Frisby's warning, the men are unsuccessful when they attempt to kill the rats and all but two of them escape alive. The reader is not told who they are, but Teresa (one of Mrs. Frisby's children) assumes that one of them must have been Justin, as he was brave. Timothy recovers from his illness and they all move to their summer home. Martin, one of Mrs. Frisby's children, wishes some day to visit Thorn Valley and meet the rats of NIMH.
[edit] Major themes
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH contains a wide variety of themes and possible interpretations which make it popular for teaching to elementary school children. Mrs. Frisby's defeat of her instinctive fears of natural predators, the limitlessness of parental love, the power of the maternal bond, the rats' desire for self-determination as opposed to dependency, and the nature of intelligence itself are weighed. The rats of NIMH are interpreted by some as justifying scientific experimentation on animals, and by others as condemning of it.
[edit] Related works
O'Brien's daughter, Jane Leslie Conly, wrote two other novels based on the rats of NIMH. Racso and the Rats of NIMH tells the story of a city rat who runs away to join the new colony, befriending Timothy Frisby and heroically saving the colony from a flood along the way. In R-T, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH, the rats rescue two lost human children who in turn help to save the colony before winter.
In 1982, the animated film The Secret of NIMH was released. Directed by Don Bluth, it was not entirely faithful to the book; it adds a mystical element totally absent from the novel, and one character is killed in a swordfight for dramatic effect. Additionally, the title character's name was changed to Brisby to avoid potential trademark objections from the makers of the frisbee.
[edit] References in pop culture
The computer game Lemmings includes a homage to the rats of NIMH, called The secret of LEMH.
| Preceded by Summer of the Swans |
Newbery Medal recipient 1972 |
Succeeded by Julie of the Wolves |
