Module 4: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Summary


Mrs. Frisby, a mouse, lives with her four young children in a farmer's field, during the winter at least. In summer the Frisby family has to move, because when the field is plowed the winter burrow is destroyed. This year, Mrs. Frisby is worried about the move--her youngest son Timothy is sick and the move could kill him.

Eventually, Mrs. Frisby makes her way to the Rats of NIMH--former lab rats who, after having their intelligence greatly enhanced, escaped the lab to set up on their own. The rats agree to help move a stone to protect her home, and she warns them that the scientists they ran from years ago have tracked them down.

Citation

O'Brien, R. C. (1971). Mrs. frisby and the rats of nimh. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Impression


This book is a lot of fun, but I couldn't get over my annoyance that Mrs. Frisby didn't get her own name! It was always either Mrs. Frisby or, worse, Mrs. Johnathan Frisby. I couldn't get over it. Nearly every other character had a first name, and I really wanted to know hers.

Name issues aside, I thought the concept of this book was very cool. The rats' story and the descriptions of their fancy burrow are intriguing, and I can see myself as a kid going out to my sandbox and digging tunnels for days. The language does feel a little old fashioned--a bit more formal than more recent middle grade books that I have read.

Review


"There's something very strange about the rats living under the rosebush at the Fitzgibbon farm. But Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with a sick child, is in dire straits and must turn to these exceptional creatures for assistance. Soon she finds herself flying on the back of a crow, slipping sleeping powder into a ferocious cat's dinner dish, and helping 108 brilliant, laboratory-enhanced rats escape to a utopian civilization of their own design, no longer to live "on the edge of somebody else's, like fleas on a dog's back."

This unusual novel, winner of the Newbery Medal (among a host of other accolades) snags the reader on page one and reels in steadily all the way through to the exhilarating conclusion. Robert O'Brien has created a small but complete world in which a mother's concern for her son overpowers her fear of all her natural enemies and allows her to make some extraordinary discoveries along the way. O'Brien's incredible tale, along with Zena Bernstein's appealing ink drawings, ensures that readers will never again look at alley rats and field mice in the same way. (Ages 9 to 12)"

Coulter, E. [Review of the book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM, by Robert C. O'Brien]. www.amazon.com

"Gr. 3-7. Intelligence and morality are the key issues facing Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH as a result of a scientific experiment." 


Booklist (September 01, 1989). [Review of the book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM, by Robert C. O'Brien]. http://www.booklistonline.com

Uses


For me, one of the more obvious uses for this book would be to introduce the issue of animal rights in a lab setting. This might be a little much for a public library, but in a school library it might work, maybe in conjuction with a science teacher in a middle school. The book provides a nonthreatening way to introduce the idea of animal experiments and start a conversation about them. It is a little unbalanced, but it could be part of a lesson.