Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Ratings123
Average rating4.1
I watched the movie based on the book a thousand times as a child (The Secret of NIMH). The book was similar in many ways and very different in others.
The book was missing the action sequences and the magic that was in the movie. There was no magic necklace or last minute knife throws to save a life.
What the book did have was more humanity. The hopes and loves and tragedy of their lives. The book was moving and thought provoking.
I am so glad I read it.
Short Review: I picked this up because I had very vague memories of the movie (which I think I only saw once when it first came out over 30 years ago.) The basic storyline is the same (I went back and looked up the differences after I finished the book). Mrs Frisby is trying to keep her family together when one of her children gets sick. The rats of NIMH are escaped from a lab where they became intelligent and long lived as the result of an experiment. But the movie and book diverge because the movie is about magic and the book is about engineering and social planning.
The book is good and worth reading, but slow. And the slowness is accentuated by a very slow narrator with lots of long pauses.
My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/rats-of-nimh/
Lovely story, first proper grown up book I've read to my 5-year old boy. Some of it passed him by, but for the most part he loved it too.
I liked this book, though I can't say I loved it. It took me a while to get into it and I eventually had to put it on hold. When I finally got around to picking it up again, which was months later, I found it much more likable than I had originally thought. It was easy reading and it was pretty interesting I guess.
Mrs. Frisby's son, Timothy, is ill and cannot be moved. But it is time for the family to move. It is time for farmers to start planting their crops and, to do so, they must first till up the land, including the spot where Mrs. Frisby's house is located. Mrs. Frisby consults a wise owl who introduces her to a brilliant tribe of rats. The rats, Mrs. Frisby learns, are friends of her late husband. She hears their fascinating story and the rats are able to come up with a way to save Timothy and Mrs. Frisby's home.