Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
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''Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH'' is a 1971 children's science fiction/fantasy book by Robert C. O'Brien, with illustrations by Zena Bernstein. The novel was published by the New York City publishing house
Atheneum Books Atheneum Books was a New York City publishing house established in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr., Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn. Simon & Schuster has owned Atheneum properties since its acquisition of Macmillan in 1994 and it created Athene ...
. This book was the winner of numerous awards including the 1972
Newbery Medal The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...
."Robert C. O'Brien." Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors, Gale, 2012. Gale Literature Resource Center. Ten years following its publication, the story was adapted for film as ''
The Secret of NIMH ''The Secret of NIMH'' is a 1982 American animated fantasy adventure film directed by Don Bluth in his directorial debut and based on Robert C. O'Brien's 1971 children's novel, '' Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH''. The film features the voices ...
'' (1982). The novel centers around a colony of escaped lab rats–the rats of NIMH–who live in a technologically sophisticated and literate society mimicking that of humans. They come to the aid of Mrs. Frisby, a widowed field mouse who seeks to protect her children and home from destruction by a farmer’s plow. The rats of NIMH were inspired by the research of John B. Calhoun on mouse and rat population dynamics at the
National Institute of Mental Health The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the prima ...
from the 1940s to the 1960s. After O’Brien’s death in 1973, his daughter Jane Leslie Conly wrote two sequels to ''Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH''.


Plot summary

Mrs. Frisby, a recently widowed
mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
, lives with her four children in a cinder block, in a field belonging to a farmer named Mr. Fitzgibbon. Her son Timothy falls ill with pneumonia just as the farmer begins planning for spring plowing, which will destroy their home. Normally, the family would move to their summer home to avoid being uprooted, but Timothy is too ill to move. An older mouse named Mr. Ages, who was a friend of Mrs. Frisby’s late husband Jonathan, gives her some medicine for Timothy. On her way home, she saves the life of a young crow named Jeremy from the farmer’s cat, Dragon. In return, Jeremy flies Mrs. Frisby to an owl’s tree so that she can ask for help moving her family. When the owl finds out that Mrs. Frisby is the widow of his old friend Jonathan, he suggests that she seek help from the rats who live in a rosebush on the farm. Frisby discovers that the rats have a literate and mechanized society. They have technology such as elevators, have tapped the electricity grid to provide lighting and heating, and have acquired other human skills, such as storing food for the winter. Their leader, Nicodemus, tells Frisby of the rats' capture by scientists working for a laboratory located at the
National Institute of Mental Health The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the prima ...
(NIMH) and the experiments that were performed on the rats, which increased the rats' intelligence to the point of being able to read, write and operate complicated machines, as well as enhancing their longevity and strength. Their increased intelligence and strength allowed them to escape from NIMH and migrate to their present location on the farm. Jonathan and Ages were the only two survivors of a group of eight mice who had been part of the experiments at NIMH and made the rats' escape possible. Out of respect for Jonathan, the rats agree to move Frisby's house to a location safe from the plow. Nicodemus also tells Frisby that the rats have recently decided to abandon their lifestyle of dependence on humans, which some rats regard as theft. Instead, the rats aim to live independently. A group of rats, led by one named Jenner, rejected this plan and left the nest at some point before Frisby's arrival. In order for the rats to move the Frisby home, the cat Dragon must be drugged, but the rats are too big to be able to do so. Mrs. Frisby volunteers to go, even though she learns that Jonathan was killed by Dragon while attempting to drug him. She is caught by the farmer's son, Billy, who puts her in a birdcage. While captured, Frisby overhears the farmer and his family discussing an incident at a nearby hardware store in which a group of rats was electrocuted after seemingly attempting to steal a small motor. This has attracted the attention of a group of men who have offered to exterminate the rats on the farmer's land free of charge. At night, the rat Justin comes to save Frisby and manages to get her out of the cage. The rats manage to move the Frisby house out of the way of the plow using a pulley and scaffolding system. The successful house move allows the mouse family to remain so that Timothy has time to recover before moving to their summer home. Mrs. Frisby warns the rats of what she learned while captured; they assume that the rats at the hardware store were Jenner's group, and that the group of men were from NIMH and are looking for them specifically. To fool the exterminators, the rats get rid of all their human-like technology and make their tunnels under the rosebush look like a normal rats' nest. As the others move, ten rats stay behind so the exterminators will not think the rat hole has been abandoned. When the exterminators fill the rat hole with poisonous gas, eight of the ten rats manage to escape, while the remaining two die in the hole. Once Timothy recovers, Frisby and her family move to their summer home.


Reception


Critical response

Since its release, ''Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH'' has received widespread praise from scholars, critics of children’s literature, and children themselves. In 1985, Alethea K Helbig called ''Mrs. Frisby'' "a combination of science fiction and animal fantasy" that described "fantastic situations with scientific accuracy." Scholar Paula T. Connolly noted the book for Conly's "gradations of moral understanding and culpability" while dealing with "such problematic issues as the roles of science and technology, identity, idealism, family life, forms of community and means of survival." In a paper titled "The Critical Reader in Children’s Metafiction", literary scholar Joe Sanders wrote that the book's emphasis on the rats' abilities to read mirrors the "growing reading abilities of the novel's own target audience." Sanders argues that the book portrays "the act of reading" as "clearly liberatory." Reading allows the rats to create a thriving human-like society once escaping from NIMH. Furthermore, reading serves as a gateway for the rats to discover that humans dislike them because they steal. "Scientific and philosophical treatises help the rats understand what their role is in the world and that if they are to be anything more than thieves, they must become a self-sustaining community." In essence, Sanders finds that O'Brien promotes reading as an empowering tool which is an important lesson that children learn through reading this book. In a retrospective essay about the Newbery Medal-winning books from 1966 to 1975, children's author
John Rowe Townsend John Rowe Townsend (19 May 1922 – 24 March 2014) was a British children's writer and children's literature scholar. His best-known children's novel is ''The Intruder'', which won a 1971 Edgar Award. His best-known academic work is a reference s ...
wrote: "It seems to me that the fact that all the animals talk and behave intelligently from the beginning of the story detracts from the spectacular development of the laboratory rats... ''Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH'' is a pleasing book, but I find it mildly frustrating; it might have been something more than it is". In 2012 it was ranked number 33 on a list of the top 100 children's novels published by ''
School Library Journal ''School Library Journal'' (''SLJ'') is an American monthly magazine containing reviews and other articles for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, with ...
''.


Awards

''Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH'' won numerous awards including the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, Newbery Medal, and the runner-up National Book Award in 1972; the Mark Twain Award in 1973; the Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Readers’ Choice Award and the William Allan White Children’s Book Award in 1974.


Impact on American views of scientific technology

In a 2019 essay, American studies scholar Arahshiel Rose Silver wrote that ''Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH'' "reflect the many scientific and technological anxieties present in 1960s American culture." During this period, scientific advancements–especially in the field of genetics–increased fears about the pervasiveness of technology in everyday life. A culture of fear began to grow surrounding unethical medical and scientific practices, which are heavily reflected in the book. Silver argued that Conly's book lays out an example of technological development ending poorly, giving both children reading the book and their parents a lot to think about.


Related works

After the death of O'Brien, his daughter,
Jane Leslie Conly Jane Leslie Conly (born 1948) is an American author, the daughter of author Robert C. O'Brien (author), Robert C. O'Brien. She started her literary work by finishing the manuscript for her father's ''Z for Zachariah'' in 1974 after his death. He ...
, wrote two other novels based on the rats of NIMH. ''
Racso and the Rats of NIMH ''Racso and the Rats of NIMH'' is the 1986 sequel to the popular book, '' Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH'', written by Jane Leslie Conly. It continues where the previous book left off. The book would be followed by a sequel published in 1990, ...
'' (1986) tells the story of a city rat who runs away to join the new colony, befriending Timothy, while saving the colony from a flood along the way. In ''
R-T, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH ''R-T, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH'' is a 1990 children's book by Jane Leslie Conly with illustrations by Leonard Lubin. It is a sequel to the 1971 book '' Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH'', continuing the story from the 1986 book ''Racso an ...
'' (1990), the rats rescue two lost human children who in turn help to save the colony before winter. “Conly’s books continue her father’s emphasis on the theme of social responsibility while weaving in new characters with more personal problems”.


Adaptations


1982 version

In 1982, the animated film ''
The Secret of NIMH ''The Secret of NIMH'' is a 1982 American animated fantasy adventure film directed by Don Bluth in his directorial debut and based on Robert C. O'Brien's 1971 children's novel, '' Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH''. The film features the voices ...
'' was released, directed by
Don Bluth Donald Virgil Bluth (; born September 13, 1937) is an American film director, animator, production designer, and animation instructor, best known for his animated films, including ''The Secret of NIMH'' (1982), ''An American Tail'' (1986), ''Th ...
; it was his first feature film outside of
Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...
. The film adds a mystical element completely absent from the novel, with Nicodemus portrayed as a wise, bearded old wizard with magic powers and an enchanted amulet, rather than an equal of the other rats. The character of Jenner is made a villain who is still present with the rats, rather than having left them before the story begins. The crow Jeremy has much greater prominence as
comic relief Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. Definition Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episo ...
in the film than he has in the book. Additionally, the Frisby family name was changed to "Brisby" to avoid trademark infringement with the
Frisbee A frisbee (pronounced ), also called a flying disc or simply a disc, is a gliding toy or sporting item that is generally made of injection-molded plastic and roughly in diameter with a pronounced lip. It is used recreationally and competitive ...
.


Live-action/animated reboot

In July 2009,
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
set
Neil Burger Neil Norman Burger (born November 22, 1963) is an American filmmaker. He is known for the fake-documentary ''Interview with the Assassin'' (2002), the period drama '' The Illusionist'' (2006), '' Limitless'' (2011), and the sci-fi action film '' ...
to write the script and
Cary Granat Cary Granat is an American film producer and studio executive. He is best known for co-founding and serving as CEO for Walden Media from 2000 to 2009 and acting as president and COO of Miramax Films’ Dimension Division from 1995 to 2000. While ...
to produce the film based on the book. Nothing has materialised since and the rights to the book lapsed. In March 2015,
MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
, which had released the 1982 film, acquired the rights to the book to adapt it into a live-action/animated film. Michael Berg was set to adapt it, while Daniel Bobker and
Ehren Kruger Ehren Kruger (born October 5, 1972) is an American film screenwriter and producer. He is best known for writing three of the five installments in the original ''Transformers'' film series: '' Revenge of the Fallen'', '' Dark of the Moon'', and ' ...
would produce. The
Russo brothers Anthony Russo (born February 3, 1970) and Joseph Russo (born July 18, 1971), collectively known as the Russo brothers (), are American directors, producers, and screenwriters. They direct most of their work together. They are best known for dir ...
were set as executive producers of the remake as of April 2019.


Television series

A television series based on the books was in development at
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
as an event series in September 2021.


References


External links

*
The Doomed Mouse Utopia That Inspired the ‘Rats of NIMH’ -Dr. John Bumpass Calhoun spent the ’60s and ’70s playing god to thousands of rodents.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of Nimh 1971 American novels 1971 children's books Newbery Medal–winning works American children's novels American science fiction novels Children's science fiction novels Children's novels about animals Fictional mice and rats American novels adapted into films Rats of NIMH Atheneum Books books Mark Twain Awards