Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Softcover

O'Brien, Robert C.

4.16

178,498 ratings by Goodreads

9780140307252: Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140307257 ISBN 13: 9780140307252

Publisher: Puffin, 1975

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They are not like other rats. They work at night, in secret . . .

Time is running out for Mrs Frisby. She must move her family of mice before the farmer destroys their home. But her youngest son, Timothy, is too ill to survive the move.

Help comes in the unexpected form of a group of mysterious, super-intelligent rats. But the rats are in danger too, and little by little Mrs Frisby discovers their extraordinary past . . .

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Review:

There's something very strange about the rats living under the rosebush in 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 civilisation 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) grabs 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 look at alley rats and field mice the same way again. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter

About the Author:

Robert C. O'Brien (1918-1973) was, in private life, Robert Leslie Conly, senior assistant editor of National Geographic Magazine where he worked for over twenty years. He was born in New York and lived most of his adult life in Virginia. He wrote three books for children, including the acclaimed MRS FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH which won the prestigious Newbery Medal. His haunting young adult novel Z FOR ZACHARIAH was completed posthumously by his wife, Sally, and daughter, Jane, using the author's notes.

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