Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
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| Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH | |
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| 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, Science fiction |
| Publisher | Atheneum Books |
| Publication date | 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.
The novel relates the plight of a widowed field mouse, Mrs. Frisby, who seeks the aid of a group of former laboratory rats in rescuing her home from destruction by a farmer's plow, and of the history of the rats' escape from the laboratory and development of a literate and technological society.
[edit] Plot summary
Mrs. Frisby's son, Timothy, falls ill with pneumonia just as the farmer begins preparation for spring plowing. Mrs. Frisby obtains medicine from her friend, the older white mouse, Mr. Ages. On the return journey, she saves the life of Jeremy, a young crow, from Dragon, the farmer's cat - the same cat who had killed her husband. The crow, Jeremy, advises her to seek advice from a wise old owl who dwells in the forest.
Jeremy flies Mrs. Frisby to the owl's tree, but the owl refuses to help her until he learns that she is the widow of Jonathan Frisby. 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 rats with approximately human intelligence, who have built a literate and mechanized society. (They have technology, such as elevators, and have acquired other human skills, such as storing food for the winter.) Their leader, Nicodemus, tells Mrs. Frisby of the rats' capture by scientists working for a laboratory located at NIMH and the subsequent experiments that the humans performed on the rats, which resulted in the rats' vastly increased intelligence and lifespan. As a result, they learned to read, write, and operate complicated machines. This increased intelligence allowed them to escape from the NIMH laboratories and migrate to their present location. Mrs. Frisby learns that her husband and Mr. Ages were the only two survivors of a group of mice who had been part of the experiments at NIMH, and who had escaped with the rats. Out of respect for Jonathan Frisby, Nicodemus agrees to help the Frisby family
The rats are preparing to abandon their lifestyle of theft from humans for a new, independent farming colony in a place called Thorn Valley. Shortly before Mrs. Frisby's arrival, a group of seven rats led by a rat named Jenner who disagreed with the push for independence as an unnecessary hardship left the colony. A group of rats (possibly Jenner's group) are later discovered dead in a hardware store, apparently electrocuted by machinery. A story in the local newspaper, headlined "MECHANIZED RATS INVADE HARDWARE STORE", attracts the attention of some strange men (possibly scientists from NIMH). The men visit the hardware store and wish to take the bodies away, but the owner of the store has already disposed of the bodies. While the men are at the store, farmer Fitzgibbon mentions that he has a huge colony of rats at his farm outside town, the men offer to exterminate the rat colony free of charge for him.
The rats agree to move Mrs. Frisby's cinderblock home into the "lee of the stone" (a spot too close to the stone for Mr. Fitzgibbon's plow to reach) if Mrs. Frisby will put sleeping powder into Dragon's food, in order to prevent him from disturbing the moving process. Mrs. Frisby is captured by the farmer's son as she darts away from the cat's bowl, and overhears the family discussing the imminent visit from the men. Fortunately, the rats realize she has been captured and come to rescue her.
The next morning Mrs. Frisby is invited to an emergency meeting at the rats' rose bush where she tells everything she heard. It is never revealed that the men are actually from NIMH, indeed the Fitzgibbons come to the conclusion that the men are concerned with rabies. It does not matter to the rats, though - whether from NIMH or not, the men are coming to kill them, so they must move, and quickly. Thanks to Mrs. Frisby's warning, the rats have time to make an escape plan and all but two of them escape alive when the men come. The successful house move allows Timothy time to recover from his illness before they move to their summer home.
[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 several characters are 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 |
