Somewhere Between "Wind in the Willows" and "Watership Down"...is N.I.M.H.

There are some story experiences you never forget. Reading a certain book with your parents, or reading something by yourself for the first time…reading “Harry Potter” as a college student and crying like a baby when someone died… okay, maybe only I did that. One of my all-time favorite “reading memories” was when my third grade teacher Suzanne Smith (license plate circa 1980: “AU2-DE2”, how could I not love her?) read us “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.” This was a few years before Don Bluth presented the animated film “The Secret of NIMH,” and I remember waiting every schoolday until reading time, so she would unfold the next chapter of this amazing story to us.

Robert C. O’Brien wrote the story thirty years ago, but rereading it last week, I still loved it. If you’ve only seen the movie, you’re doing yourself a disservice, and need to read this book, which I may describe as lying somewhere on a “talking animal book spectrum” between “Wind in the Willows” and “Watership Down.”

Mrs. Frisby is a field mouse who lives in a farmer’s garden in a partially buried cinder block. She and her children live in the garden during the winter, and move to the nearby forest during summer, when the garden is too busy to be a safe haven for mice. There’s a problem this spring however—Timothy Frisby, Mrs. Frisby’s young son, has fallen ill, and won’t be able to make the move. If he remains behind, he’ll be chopped to bits in the blades of Farmer Fitzgibbon’s plow, and Mrs. Frisby can’t leave him behind. She uses all of the resources at her disposal, and eventually needs to do the unthinkable—ask other species for help. She begins with a young crow who she improbably rescued from the farmer’s cat, and he leads her to an owl who lives in the woods…and he advises her to ask advice of the Rats.

Not just any rats, but rats living under a large rosebush near the Fitzgibbon’s garden. They’re odd rats, much larger than others, and they do things like steal electrical wire and vast quantities of seeds. They’ve lived there longer than Mrs. Frisby can remember, but, as with other species, she hasn’t had much to do with them. Eventually Mrs. Frisby overcomes her fears, motivated by her love of her children, and goes to the Rats to ask her favor.

O’Brien gives us a group of well-rounded characters that I fell in love with as a child, and still enjoyed reading now. The rats include the heroic Justin, the wise Nicodemus, the dim Brutus, and others...and the world they inhabit is beautiful enough that I spent days trying to imagine what it would be like to live in that subterranean world beneath the Fitzgibbon’s rosebush. Mrs. Frisby herself is undoubtedly the heroine of the piece, and her bravery through fear shines like a beacon throughout the book. Despite this, I don’t comfortably label the book either a “girl’s book” or a “boy’s book”…it’s just a solid book that both genders would enjoy.

If you’ve never read the book or seen the movie, I don’t want to spoil the “secret” of NIMH; but it’s a great read for children or for adults. It has some great themes, like Mrs. Frisby’s love of her family, without getting all treacly. There are other themes like interspecies cooperation and civic responsibility—and whether they’re presented by rodents or men, it’s a great lesson that I first caught glimpses of almost 25 years ago in Mrs. Smith’s class.

There are some frightening moments, softened by O’Brien’s great storytelling skills, and overall the story is a happy one—perfect for reading your children at bedtime. The chapters are short, but filled with details that paint a vivid picture, especially of the Fitzgibbon farm and the Rats’ Rosebush home. Although the rats are initially quite frightening, they’re eventually seen as friendly, and they do save the life of young Timothy…at some personal sacrifice. The book was a Newbery Award winner, and with good reason—I still remember how the book stirred questions in my young mind, and how I finally came to understand how the rats got their seemingly magic powers.

If you’ve seen the fairly mediocre movie, it’s time to put that away and read the book that inspired the film. This is a great story that’s aged well, and deserves its reputation as a children’s classic. Take some time either with your children or by yourself and be taken away by the Rats of NIMH.