Surprisingly thoughtful book about education, ethics, community and obligations to ourselves, our family, our tribe, and the larger world. Even prejudice. Led to good conversations with my twin 10yo granddaughters, with whom I read it on a beach vacation. We all loved it.
Newbery winner, and rightly so.

WARNING!!! CONTAINS SPOILERS:

1. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH mostly takes its place in Mr.Fitzgibbon farm. Mrs. Frisby who is a widow has 4 children. One day, one of her brightest kid Timothy becomes sick. The plowing was soon starting, but Timothy couldn't move out of his bed. Even after eating the medicine Mr. Ages gave, Timothy had a big chance that pneumonia will recur. That is when Mrs. Frisby started to find ways they could move without getting Timothy sick again. She went to her neighbors, but couldn't find any solutions that could even help a bit. One day, the crow she saved few days ago suggested her to go see the owl. There, she found a solution to go see the rats. The rats were very pleased to help her because of her relationship between Mr. Frisby. The rats moved Mrs. Frisby's entire house for her family to be safe and warm. Soon, winter went by, alarming the buds to wake up. Timothy eventually got well, and they lived happily ever after.

2. The main conflict in the book is when Mrs. Frisby's family is in danger from the plowing day. Normally, her family would have moved to a different house up in the mountains to survive from the plowing. However, because of Timothy's sickness, they couldn't take a chance of moving. If Mrs. Frisby hadn't found any solutions, they would have died from the tractor. However, after Mrs. Frisby's hard work, the rats decided to help her solve the problem. Eventually, the problem was solved, leaving Mrs. Frisby's family safe and happy.

3. I personally loved this book because it was very sweet. It wasn't scary or violent, but warm and caring. How Mrs. Frisby tried to save her children gave me an another thought of rats, who really cared of each other just like humans. Even though we ignore and sometimes hate rats, I learned that we should still respect them, because they are part of our planet.

occasionally it's nice to run down nostalgia lane.

A lot like Watership Down but slightly less important and infinitely easier to finish. It's probably been ten years since the last time I read this which is weird to think about. If you live in Springfield, I'm starting a book club and this is the first book we're reading; come to the downtown library tomorrow evening if you wanna be in it. You don't have to have a copy or have started reading it yet.

When I was a college student, I remember that a local, independent theater (remember those?!) was screening “The Goonies”. As a child it was one of my favorite films. In addition to being able to quote it from memory I had Goonies figures, a board game, and other assorted paraphernalia associated with it. Visibly excited, I asked my girlfriend at the time to come with me to this seemingly seismic event. While she seemed somewhat less impressed than I was (might have been a cultural thing) she acquiesced, perhaps out of a morbid curiosity, to my mania and off we went. What I saw at the theater however, bore no resemblance to my memory of it. It would seem that the 20 years between viewings had allowed some romanticizing of the film to build up in my brain when the reality was, it just wasn’t that good. As my girlfriend so aptly put it “Was that it?”.
I lead you on this diversion into my youthful disappointment because “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh” was for me, the book equivalent of “The Goonies” as a child. It was one of a handful of books I read cover to cover countless times, entranced by these rats living underground and outwitting the stupid humans. Unlike “The Goonies” however, “Nimh” seems to have only gotten better with age. The adventure is still there for sure, but beneath that there are some fascinating themes about humanity, how we perceive “lesser” creatures, and community. It’s a wonderful read for children of all ages. Even big ones like me.

I approached this with the usual trepidation you get when going back to a childhood favourite after nearly four decades away... deep breath... but I needn’t have worried. This book is every bit as charming, moving and, let’s be honest, a teeny bit scary as I remembered. If you like an intelligently written children’s book that provides some food for thought, you could do a lot worse.

I can’t help but wonder if James Herbert read this before he wrote ‘The Rats’, though... brrr...

Way better than expected.

Leído a Inés durante el último mes. Generalmente cada día le costaba empezar pero viendo comenzaba a leer ya no quería que parara. Le ha gustado mucho, y por las preguntas que me hacía sobre la marcha lo ha seguido muy bien. Es de esos libros que gustan tanto a niños como a adultos.

Narrado desde el punto de vista de unas ratas que se hacen inteligentes y más longevas en un laboratorio, con modificaciones en su ADN de modo que las modificaciones se trasladan a su descendencia, cuenta la situación en que se encontraría una nueva civilización inteligente en una tierra habitada hasta los últimos rincones por la humanidad. El desenlace le deja a uno con la sensación de que se ha ganado algo de tiempo pero el choque de civilizaciones ha de estar por llegar en algún momento.

When I was a kid, I read voraciously (a truth that likely applies to many of us on GoodReads). And one of the books that stands out in my memory as an early favorite is Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. The copy I owned was a hand-me-down from a relative, and I can still picture its white cover and purple text on the shelf of my childhood bookcase. What I can also still picture is the VHS cassette cartridge we kept next to our (new!) VCR that contained our family’s copy of the Don Bluth animated film, The Secret of NIMH (released in 1982, the same year I was born).

Let me pause and say that you know you’re an ‘80s baby if you recall the best animated films of your childhood—American Tail, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Land Before Time—as Don Bluth films. (I mean, Disney is great and all, butttttt their studio flicks of that era had nothing on Don’s work. Just thinking of Littlefoot with his dying mother STILL brings tears to my eyes. Shew!)

Where was I? Oh, right …..talking rats. I knew at some point I would introduce my kids to Mrs. Frisby. And that glorious moment with my 9-year-old son happened this spring, as I read him this timeless classic about a tiny widowed mouse and her relationship to a mischief of extraordinarily intelligent rats. The best part? He loved the story every bit as much as I did. And this weekend, we’re tracking down the animated film so we can watch it together. That, in a nutshell (or a rat’s nest), is what we call the “good stuff” of parenting, if I do say so myself.

Now that the Battle of the Books is over, I don't feel guilty about checking out the titles. Also, from the questions and answers, I have a better idea about which ones will appeal.

***

That was written some time ago, because that BOB was Veronica's, two or three years ago. Now I have started (and made actual progress!) because Natasha is reading it for class.

***

Another long pause, and I've finally finished. I don't think I've ever read a book that I so desperately hoped had a sequel. O'Brien engaged me with his animal and human characters, and left many unanswered questions. What about NIMH and the experiments? What about the possibly surviving mice? How goes the Plan? What about Jeremy?

Although clearly this one story is done, the overall since of incompleteness that O'Brien left me with keeps it from being great. Not to mention the fact that this wasn't a Plan I could ever be happy with. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is both complete, and a much happier ending to my mind, and has humor. Still I can see why schools would be fond of it: it is brief, and it does raise many questions, which would make for a lively discussion.

Fans of the book should read Flowers for Algernon when they hit their cynical teen years.

Library copy.

This is a book that I had fond memories of from originally reading it in the 4th grade. I was considering buying it as a gift for my niece, who's that age, so I thought that I should read it again myself first. Naturally, I was a bit concerned that my memory of the book would be let down by the passage of time. Thankfully, I was wrong.

This is a great story full of memorable characters and plenty of adventure that keeps the pages turning. Children and adults alike will enjoy this award-winning novel and it is written in such a way that it really doesn't seem that juvenile.

Overall, a great story with a lot of heart. I'd recommend it to just about anyone.

This was a great book. I read it in the forth grade and it has stuck with me ever since.
It is about a group of rats which have been biologicly altared to be highly intelegent. They form there own cyvalization and such. There is a family of mice involved as well wherein there is a love story of sorts. I highly recommend this book to all ages.