So why aren’t there more adult books with animals as the main characters? There are so many excellent kid books with animals! I guess at some point most folks start thinking that a book about animals is too childish (similarly to how some people think fantasy and sf are too childish) and just stop reading them. Which is a shame because I think readers of all ages would enjoy a book like Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

It’s particularly interesting to me that this is one of the few novels for younger readers that I can think of in which the main character is actually an adult– a parent, in fact. But I was nevertheless eager to read about the widowed mouse Mrs. Frisby as she struggled to find a way to save her home from the farmer’s plow so her ill son wouldn’t risk dying in the move. Mrs. Frisby has thrilling adventures: rescuing Jeremy the crow from his tangle of string before Dragon the cat could attack, visiting the Great Owl to ask for advice, and finally seeking out the mysterious rats who live under the farmer’s rosebush to ask for help. And she does it all as a simple field mouse. She doesn’t have the extraordinary powers of the rats, but she manages to be just as much a hero, and to do extraordinary things.

The rats themselves were also fascinating. I loved all the details of their home and lifestyle, with its electricity and library. I loved the rats themselves: dashing Justin, wise Nicodemus, even dense Brutus. I loved the mystery of their origins as laboratory rats, and the story of their escape from NIMH, and their plans for the future.

I must admit that my memory of this book has been influenced heavily by the movie, which I loved also (but which is very different from the book in certain plot points, notably the inclusion of more magical elements). Still, just now, picking up my battered old copy and paging through it, I started reading and got lost in it all over again.