Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Hardcover

O'Brien, Robert C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0575015527 ISBN 13: 9780575015524

Publisher: Victor Gollancz, 1972

Synopsis

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH is a 1971 children's book by Robert C. O'Brien, with illustrations by Zena Bernstein. The winner of the 1972 Newbery Medal, the story was adapted for film in 1982 as The Secret of NIMH. 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. The work was inspired by the research of Dr. John B. Calhoun on mice and rat population dynamics at the National Institute of Mental Health

About this title

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) --Emilie Coulter

From the Publisher

Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, is faced with a terrible problem. She must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death. But her youngest son, Timothy, lies ill with pneumonia and must not be moved. Fortunately, she encounters the rats of NIMH, an extraordinary breed of highly intelligent creatures, who come up with a brilliant solution to her dilemma. And Mrs. Frisby in turn renders them a great service.END

About this edition

• Publisher: Victor Gollancz
• Publication date: 1972
• ISBN 10: 0575015527
• ISBN 13: 9780575015524
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 192