Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O'Brien, was my January selection for Becky's Celebrate the Author Reading Challenge. And since today is the last day of January, I guess I'd better get my "review" written...
The rats living under the rosebush at the Fitzgibbon farm are anything but ordinary. They are extremely intelligent escapees from a research lab. Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, must turn to these rats to help save the life of her sick son, Timothy.
To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what to write about this book. I enjoyed it. I didn't fall madly in love with it. However, I think there's a very good chance that I would have fallen madly in love with it as a child...it really seems like the kind of book that would have captured me then.
All of my book choices for this particular challenge were made with "the boys" in mind. That is, I'm reading them aloud to my 5- and 7-year-old little monkeys. So, I thought maybe I should pass along their opinions of the book as well...
"It was good." Initial response from Gray. He is a man of few words. But upon further questioning, I did gather a couple more tidbits. He loved the adventurous nature of the book. He was very fond of one of the characters, a rat named Justin. But it bothered him that we didn't really know what happened to Justin at the end of the book ...was he one of the rats who died? (I admit that I really wanted to know as well, but would have to say that the way it was written was probably more effective and had a more realistic ring to it.)
Max enjoyed the book as well, though he did take issue with the fact that Dragon, the cat, was portrayed as a bad guy. In actuality, Dragon wasn't really the bad guy, but Max seems to think that every cat deserves to the hero.
The only other comment I could elicit: "How come every book we read has rats in it?" Of course, not every book we read has rats, but we have been on a roll lately, with Charlotte's Web, The Tale of Despereaux, and now Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.
Hmmm...so there you go. Really living up to the title "random thoughts" today, aren't I?
5 comments:
This is on my to-read list. I've got it checked out from the library. :)
I read this one as a kid and really loved it, despite my serious aversion to rats (nowadays, my scariest nightmares involve rats just crawling around my room *shudder*). Have you seen Enchanted? It's a great movie, but there's a scene with rats that I had to close my eyes at both times.
I think the most villainised cat I've seen is the one in Cinderella, whose name is Lucifer! lol It's funny, because in real life if there were mice scurrying around my home, I'd be all for the cat.
Max and his love for cats - how cute!
It seems like I read this one as a kid, but I don't remember it well at all...
Eva-
It's funny...snakes, spiders, mice--none of those critters bother me at all. And I don't mind pet rats. But good ol' Norway rats...ewww. Irrational as it may be, they just creep me out! And when we finally do get around to watching Enchanted here, I can guarantee my eyes will be shut tight, too!
Kara-
Max does crack us up with his cat obsession. You know who one of his favorite cats is? Harvey! I kid you not...he and Gray still talk about him all the time.
i did fall in love with this one as a child - in fifth grade, i think. i haven't read it since then so i'm wondering how i'd feel about it as an adult.
i enjoyed your "random thoughts"! thanks for sharing them.
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