Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH: my childhood classic
Title: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Author: Robert C. O’Brien
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
Pages: 233
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐(and a half)
Who will like it? If you want to just forget about being an adult for a few hours and pick up something plain, relaxing and interesting, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH won’t disappoint you. If you have children, grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews, read this book with them ❤
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH was one of my first favourite books that I’ve read. And sometimes reading a book is like transporting back to a place, where you catch some memories that you didn’t realize were still stowed away somewhere. Most of these memories aren’t episodic, they’re just whiffs of feelings I catch when I read the same unique series of words that conjure up memories, 10 years apart, of what it felt like to be 9, what I was excited about, and even where I sat quietly falling into the story. Memories aren’t ever destroyed, some people say. They’re just hidden and require different triggers to be retrieved.
When I first read it, I remember thinking it was perfect, not overwhelming and not underwhelming, not too sentimental and not too buoyant either. You know, when I re-visit a book, I’m often a little bit worried whether this book would live up to its memories. Reading books again as you get older often means losing some of that lustre of reading it for the first time.
But this second time reading it, I still love it. Maybe in a different way, and maybe after every ten years, as someone changes, the book’s narrative can seem to shift with that someone too. Reading this book with children would be adorable, to watch their little faces grow worried about Timothy’s pneumonia, and then relax when she listens to Mrs. Frisby escape the cat. Their eyes might widen when she jumps on the back of a crow, and smile when she’s defended by a shrew. All of the animals are so kind to each other, sentient, smart, and more humans are, and then and they’re all trying to help someone.
The plot is simple but clever. Mrs. Frisby soars in the sky to see the owl after helping Jimmy (with The Wonderful Adventures of Nils vibes), the rats offer a simple solution to her worrisome dilemma, and it is completely understandable how the rats wish to be self-dependent and establish their own morals, and realistic in that some rats think differently and deviate from that idea. The ending is well-done, the story not overly complicated but still specially imprinted and heartwarming.
