I remember the movie of this book when I was quite young and being very into the first one and the direct-to-video sequel (which I probably loved more than the original). What I particularly liked about this book, though, is that it doesn't rely on any elements of magic like the movie did, but is purely based on science (well, as scientific as humanly intelligent rats can be). It's a great book for kids who are starting to understand and get into the animal liberation movement while also just being a fun read in general. ( )

La señora Frisby, una ratoncita viuda con cuatro hijos pequeños, tiene que trasladar a su familia a su casa de verano inmediatamente, o enfrentarse a una muerte segura. Pero su hijo menor, Timothy, yace en cama con neumonía y no puede moverse… Un encuentro afortunado con las ratas de NIMH, un extraordinario grupo de criaturas de inteligencia muy desarrollada, le planteará una brillante solución a su dilema.

I read this quite a while ago and was entertained by the rats who became smart. NIMH is the National Institute of Mental Health. ( )

One of my favorite books when I was a kid... still is... ( )

Summary: A mother mouse has a great adventure and discovers a big secret while trying to save the life of her sick child.

Things I liked:

Protagonists: I like books which are written from the perspective of anthropomorphised animals. I especially like it when they don't sugar coat the whole 'animals eat animals' thing, but still find a way for the whole 'society make sense'. I also thought that each of the main characters had a good motivation for what they did and everything basically made sense in a nice way.

The secret: hyper intelligent rats escaping from the lab and building their own secret society was a pretty good idea and I found myself eager to find out how this was all realised.

Things I thought could be improved:

I think a lot of the language was heavily peppered with very human concepts (for example the use of 'feet' as a unit of measure. I think it would have been better if there had been more 'animal based' culture and language.


Highlight: I think my favourite bit was when Frisby met the owl. That was when I first got a tingle that their was some greater mystery to be found. ( )