Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

So I completely forgot to post a review the last time it was my turn to do so.  I don't even remember what distracted me that day.  I'm sure it had something to do with child-rearing, though that's no excuse as we all know reading is way more important than tending to one's own children.  With that thought in mind here's a review of a book you can share with your children and then go rent the movie for them to watch so you can grab a nap.....or read another book.

I picked this book up because the movie was the "retro" pick at a Redbox close to my house.  A long, long time ago I watched said movie and now I can remember certain bits and pieces of it, but at the time I couldn't remember the major plot.  That bothered me.  So I went and got the book.  I make no promises as to how closely the movie and the book resemble one another, though the bits and pieces of the movie that remain in my memory matched up to some of the major plot points in the book.  It's a quick read and certainly worth the time to share with your kids, though there are some definite adult themes here (screwing up the natural order of things, societal norms, class distinctions, death....you know, the light-hearted variety of things).

Mrs. Frisby and friends is kind of like Flowers for Algernon but happier and told from the rodent perspective.  The rats and mice of the story are given life-altering injections at NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health one can assume), but with the effect that they gain intelligence too great to literally contain.  They escape and start the beginnings of their own society once they realize that they can not "go home again" in the sense of living off of other's refuse.  The rats, and the couple of mice that survive the escape, make their way to a farm and begin finding ways to live by their own means.  Mrs. Frisby's late husband Jonathon was one of the mice, and is held in high regard by the rats on the farm.

Mrs. Frisby must go to the rats for help when one of her sons falls ill at the time they should be making their migration to the woods.  She finds out many things she didn't know about her husband, hears all about the rats' journey to the farm and their ultimate plan to live on their own, and faces the world's scariest farm cat in the process of moving her cinder block house from one side of a rock to another (this is actually what I remembered from the movie).  There is plenty of action to hold the attention of both kids and adults throughout the book.

Ultimately the rats must leave the farm under less than ideal circumstances. and not everyone makes it to their new home.  Mrs. Frisby and her children are given the time they need for her son to get better and then are able to make their migration to the wooded area for spring and summer.  There are a lot of lessons in this book.  For one, you can't teach rodents to read and then expect them not to read everything.....like signs to help them escape.  So I'll be putting that project on hold.  Also, garbage does not taste as sweet when you realize it's garbage.  Who knew?  But in my opinion, the real idea is that there are far-reaching and unpredictable consequences to messing with the natural order of things.  Then again, what do I know?  I can't even remember to post a book review.