Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Widowed mouse Mrs. Frisby has to move herself and her four children from their winter home in a cinder block in the farmer's field to their summer home by the woodland stream. But her son is stricken with pneumonia and is both too weak to make the move and would find the cold dampness of their summer house very dangerous so early in the year. But in five days the farmer is making plans to plow the field and their home will be destroyed.

At her wits end, Mrs. Frisby seeks help from some unusual rats, rats which had escaped from intelligence-enhancing experiements in a lab at NIMH,( the National Institutes of Mental Health).Now with increased size,strength and high intelligence (they can read,which has been of important value in setting up their community) they have developed a conscience about stealing from the farmer,and are planning to move to a secluded area where they can establish a self-sustaining lifestyle,with the deliberate aim of setting up a new rat civilisation,without having to depend on humans,and avoiding recapture by the scientists.

On discovering that Mrs. Frisby's husband had important ties with the rats,even helping with their escape and survival, they agree to help her save her family.Mrs Frisby will have to risk all to save her son,especially by drugging the fearsome cat,Dragon,and there will be excitement, danger and tragedy before it all ends up happy ever after.

I really enjoyed this book,which won the Newbery Medal.It started off so rural,very much in the vein of Beatrix Potter,and then suddenly threw the reader into the adventures of lab rats escaping from the lab,and then the intense dangers and risks as both rats and Mrs Frisby have a hair raising time escaping the humans,and saving her home. Vividly written,full of thrills and spills,there are plenty of delightful things to hold the attention of adults.I loved it,and would recommend it to children and adults alike.

The author actually knew someone who worked on experiments with rats at the NIMH in the 50s and 60s Even today NIMH are doing breakthrough work. Research published in the March 2013 issue of Cell Stem Cell details the injection of human glial cells into the brains of newborn mice. Upon maturation, the mice were faster learners. O'Brien was on the ball 40 years before. Cool!