Product Description

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 . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29731 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Amazon.co.uk 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 O'Brien was, in private life, Robert Conly, senior assistant editor of National Geographic Magazine where he worked for over twenty years. He wrote three books for children and one for adults and won the Newbery Medal for MRS FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH, filmed as THE SECRETS OF NIMH. Robert O'Brien died in 1973.

Customer Reviews

Good book to read.
I am in 1st year at the academy and in my English class I have read a novel called Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. It is a great novel because it has great characters in it.
It is all about a mouse called Mrs. Friby and she has four children and she has a sick child called Timothy and Mrs. Frisby goes out on a journey to get help from rats for medicine. There is farmer called Mr. Fitzgibbon who is going to run over their house with a tractor and the rats help her and her family to move house.
I would award it a five-star because it is the greatest book I have read in Englissh at the moment and if there is anybody out there who is thinking to read it should read it.

A book that will appeal to the child in everyone.
The first I ever heard of this book, I was all of 10 years old. My home teacher, Mrs Bird, would read to us in the closing minutes of the school day. It wasn't too long before we were all totally captivated by this gorgeous litte tale. But the year came to an end too soon and we never did get to the end of the story. Now, 20 years on, I figured it was time to find out just what happened to The Frisby Family and the mysterious Rats of Nimh.

It is spring and Mr Fitzgibbon is getting ready to plough his field. This causes a great deal of distress for a family of field mice who have their winter home in an old cement block in the field. Normally, at the first signs of spring, they would pack up what they could carry and move to their summer home, far removed from the tractors and ploughs. But this year Mrs Frisby's youngest, Timothy, falls ill and the doctor's advice is, above all else, that he not be moved. But what can she do? With little time to spare and simply no other options available to her, Mrs Frisby seeks out the Rats of Nimh and before too long, she finds herself caught up in the company of these amazing rats.

Thus, we enter the secret world under the rosebush. We learn how the Rats of Nimh came to be, we meet Nicodemus, Arthur and the brave Justin, we learn all about The Plan and the role Mrs Frisby's late husband, Jonathan, played in the Rats' colourful history.

It's a wonderful story with delightful characters - Mr Ages, the doctor; young Jeremy the Crow; the fearsome farm cat, Dragon and above all the brave and simply lovely Mrs Frisby, who is determined to save her family - at all costs.

It's a book that will appeal to everyone - regardless of age!!

Enchanting
I have just sent this book as a birthday present to my nephew. I could not resist sending it as I have read it so often and enjoyed it every time. As a child the idea of sentinent rats fascinated me and I was wholly engrossed in the tale of their escape from the laboratory, having never realised animals were even experimented on. I would gladly buy this book for every child I know!