Ahoy there me mateys!  Here I take a second look at a previously enjoyed novel and give me crew me second reflections, as it were, upon visitin' it again . . .

In the last couple of days, I had to take a road journey and decided to listen to an audiobook on the way.  I wanted something I had previously read before and saw this one was available from the library.  The First Mate had never heard of it and I was appalled.  I adored the 1982 movie and the book when I was little but hadn't read or watched it in over a decade or more.  I got excited to revisit it.

Absolutely no disappointment here!  For those who don't know the story, Mrs. Frisby is a field mouse with four children.  Her son Timothy gets pneumonia and cannot be moved from their winter home.  The problem is that the farmer is about to plow the fields.  If Mrs. Frisby doesn't find a solution about what to do for Timothy then he will die.

When I was little I was mostly fascinated by the rats of NIMH and how they came to be.  While I still enjoyed that section, this time I was much more focused in Mrs. Frisby's journey and her kindness and determination.  She is just a regular mouse but her love is her strength and I was surprisingly very moved by her adventures.  It was also nice to revisit old friends like Justin and Jeremy.  I did think it was interesting that even in the world of rodents that the males held all the power and made all the decisions.  I didn't notice that as a child.  So it be even more extraordinary that a older widowed mother mouse is the hero.  I was more inclined to think the rats saved the day when I was little.  Now I know where the true strength lies.

I very much enjoyed the audiobook and thought Barbara Caruso did an excellent job with this one.  After listening to this I very much want to rewatch the movie.  I will wait until the First Mate and I are back together and order him to watch it with me.  Arrrr!

Side note: Goodreads listed this as a series and I was confused.  Turns out the author's daughter wrote two additional books in the series.  No offense but I like this book as a standalone!

the perfect book. this is not up for debate.

A super imaginative story that somehow slipped through the walls of my heart.

A well written book, that never quite reaches the intensity of the film.

This book was as good as I remembered it being when I was a kid, although I had forgotten about the ambiguous part of the ending. Definitely worthy of the Newbery award that it received.

If you are looking for a specific brand of children’s book that is simultaneously wholesome, while containing legitimate sci-fi horror elements, then look no further than Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

I’ll admit, I recently found myself re-watching Don Bluth’s film adaptation The Secret of NIMH, which peaked my curiosity to seek out the source material. While I first saw this film as an adult, I cannot say that this story evokes much childhood nostalgia for me as it does for the many others who grew up with the brave, widowed Mrs. Frisby and the ingenious, yet secretive rats.

Unraveling as a story within a story, there are a lot of really interesting characters presented who each provide missing pieces for the “secret” storyline, and/or serve to better contextualize the greater world of sentient animals living on the farm. My only critique would be that given the large cast of rodents (and birds) in such a small book, I was given just enough plot cheese to nibble on without ever really feeling full on complete character development.

My nitpicking (of a children’s book) aside, I’m sure the intended audience would still very much enjoy a tale like this. The entirety of my own childhood was filled with talking animals, and this is a truly unique story that any kid (or adult) with such proclivities could appreciate. Long live rat civilization.

I love Watership Down, so I’m really surprised that I never read this book as a child. It’s right up my alley.

Mrs, Frisby isn’t a genetically-modified Mouse or Rat, she’s just a mom with four children, trying to keep her family happy and healthy. But because of her gumption and kindness she falls in with the Rats of NIHM, escaped super-mice with a mysterious past and powerful enemies.

It’s very darling. The only reason it’s not five stars is I can’t imagine wanting to read it again.

Leskeksi äskettäin jääneen hiirirouva Frisbyn nuorin lapsi Timothy sairastuu vakavasti jokakeväisen muuttopäivän alla, ja hukka uhkaa periä koko perheen, sillä maanviljelijän aura uhkaa jyrätä heidät kaikki, ellei apua saada jostakin. Viisaan pöllön, valkean hiirivanhuksen ja nuoren variksenpoikasen avustamana hiirirouva tutustuu läheisen ruusupensaan alla asustaviin rottiin, jotka eivät olekaan mitä tahansa pienjyrsijöitä. Frisby pääsee osalliseksi suuresta salaisuudesta, joka sivuaa myös hänen omaa perhettään.

Robert C. O'Brienin "Hiirirouva ja ruusupensaan viisaat" (WSOY, 1977) on lasten fantasiaromaani, joka kuuluu lapsuuteni suurimpien lukuelämysten joukkoon. Kiitos siitä taitaa olla kuulua kummitädilleni, joka tuli aikanaan minulle kirjaa suositelleeksi. Lukuelämys oli niin suuri, etten sittemmin uskaltanut kirjaan tarttua uudestaan. Pelkäsin ajan kullanneen muistot, kuten niin monelle muulle vanhalle lastenkirjalle on käynyt.

Syytä pelkoon ei ollut. Yli kaksikymmentä vuotta myöhemmin "Hiirirouva" oli kaikkea sitä mitä olin sen muistellutkin olevan: jännittävä ja vähän surumielinen lastenromaani, joka jää mielikuvitusta upeasti kutkuttavalla tavalla avoimeksi (ilmeisesti englanniksi sarja jatkui pitempään, mutta tämän yksittäisen suomennoksen voi aivan hyvin lukea itsenäisenä teoksena). Suuri seikkailu ei kaipaa kokonaisen maailmankaikkeuden pelastamista, vaan joskus riittää kirjaimellisesti ruohonjuuritasolla liikkuminen.

Valitettavasti kirjaa ole enää kirjastomme kokoelmissa montaa kappaletta, mutta lupaan siitä huolimatta tehdä kaikkeni, että tämä mestariteos löytäisi mahdollisimman monta lukijaa myös vastaisuudessa. Ja tehkää te muutkin samoin!

I forgot about the lab testing element of the plot, and even though it's done well and makes sense and is interesting and all that, it's still kind of depressing and takes up too much of the narrative's time. But I do live for little woodland animal communities, so.

The Secret of NIMH was one of my favorite movies as a kid, so I'm sort of shocked that I never read the book before now. But not as shocked as I was to discover how different this is -- the novel, unlike the film, has no fantasy elements at all (if you discount talking animals, which in this context, I do). Props to Don Bluth and cowriters for the strange but magnificent adaption, which has one of the most memorable and frightening climaxes of any film -- children's or otherwise -- that I can recall. And this is not in the book! The filmmakers were wise to shift the conflict with Jenner to the present, and the emotional core of the climax to Mrs. Frisby and her children, rather than the rats. Also, props to the way the film covers the rats' backstory so efficiently and with such memorable imagery -- spiraling DNA! Was this the first time I ever encountered that? -- when in the novel it takes chapters. Though of course, in fairness to O'Brien, that is the advantage of a visual medium over a written one.

This has turned into a review of the film much more than of the book, but I can't divorce them in my mind, and my intense fondness for the former certainly colored my opinion of the latter. I think I would have found this inventive but average were Bluth's visuals not imprinted so firmly in my brain. But why quibble over the boost?

Some random other thoughts:

--I had forgotten that our heroic mouse protagonist isn't called Mrs. Frisby in the film, but Mrs. Brisby. Apparently this is because the makers of frisbees threatened to sue the filmmakers for possible copyright infringement. Wow. Fuck off, Big Frisbee.

--I recalled the heroic rat Justin being An Uncomfortably Sexy Animated Animal, a la the Robin Hood foxes, and figured this was because Bluth seems to like to include a certain type of man who is That Way (see also Dimitri in Anastasia, a far inferior film -- don't @ me, Anastasia girlies!). But in fact, O'Brien also takes the time to pause the narrative to let readers know that Justin is one hot rat. No one is allowed to leave this story without understanding what a sexy rat Justin is, okay?

--The Jerry Goldsmith score to the film is so good that just a few notes of the theme reduced me to a blubbering mess when I rewatched tonight. Suddenly I was five years old again, feeling how deeply this story gripped me.

--It's possible that we as a society forgot how to make good children's movies when we stopped making them incredibly terrifying/traumatizing. Without the owl from this movie and the Swamps of Sadness from The Neverending Story, who would I even be? Don't answer that.

Oh, how I love this story! The animated movie is one of my clearest memories of childhood.

It helps that I am a devoted rat-dad, but I'd recommend it even for those who still harbor prejudices against these noble creatures.

This is my very own book order copy from back in Ye Olden Tymes, when I was a wee Jessie.

One of my favorite movies then, and still much loved, I also loved this book. My kids really loved it, too, and got super into it. But I have to say, this is one of those that did have improvements made for the movie. The character of Jeremy Crow, who is only briefly in the book, is much more fun in the movie. And the bulk of the book is Nicodemus describing NIMH, rather pedantically.

Also, the book ends with the reader knowing that two of the rats died, but not which two. The only thing we can say for sure is that Brutus is all right, though he has to leave for their new home in Thorn Valley on his own. Did Justin die? TELL ME!