Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O'Brien (pub. 1971)
Amazon; B&N; Goodreads; isfdb; Scholastic; Simon & Schuster; TV Tropes; Wikipedia

Caution: spoilers.

This came out in 1971, and is considered a children's book, but I didn't read it until 2014, at age 38. However, an animated film called The Secret of NIMH came out in 1982, and I saw that at some point in the 80s. I've always loved the movie, and wanted to read the book. I knew there were some differences, such as Mrs. Frisby's name being changed to Mrs. Brisby, in the movie. But actually there are some much more important changes than that. I must say, it's hard for me to be sure what genre to call the book. The movie definitely had an element of fantasy to it that the book lacks, although the book itself includes fantastical elements (all the animals are anthropomorphized) as well as a scientific element that borders on science fiction. It also has a strong sense of realism about it. So it's kind of ambiguous, and I'm not very comfortable with my decision... but I guess I'll list it under "fantasy." Also I should say it's a popular and award-winning book, and deservedly so. I found it to be rather simply yet elegantly written, a style that can be enjoyed by young and old alike. And ultimately, I liked the book slightly more than the movie. (In fact I think the book is more than slightly better than the movie, but the movie is pretty good, and since I saw it as a child, it has nostalgia working for it.)

There's a field mouse named Mrs. Frisby, who lives with her family on the farm of Mr. Fitzgibbon (the movie apparently added an "s" to the farmer's name). Mrs. Frisby's husband, Jonathan, had died sometime prior to the story, so she is raising her four children (Teresa, Martin, Cynthia, and Timothy) by herself. They've spent the winter living in a mostly-buried cinder block in the Fitzgibbons' garden, but they know that in the spring they'll have to move to their summer house, because the plow will destroy their winter home. However, toward the end of February, Timothy falls very ill, so she goes to see a mouse named Mr. Ages, who makes medicine. In addition to giving her medicine for Timothy, he tells her that her son must remain in bed for at least three weeks, otherwise his pneumonia could return. On the way home, she meets a crow named Jeremy, and the two of them elude the Fitzgibbons' cat, Dragon, together. (Jeremy has a much smaller and much less goofy role in the book than he does in the movie.)

A bit later, Mr. Fitzgibbon tests his tractor for the first time of the year, but it needs a new part, which will take probably five days to get. (This is somewhat different than the movie, both the reason for and the length of the reprieve.) Still, Mrs. Frisby knows Timothy won't be well enough to move to the summer house, by the time Mr. Fitzgibbon is ready to start plowing. She asks Jeremy's advice, and he tells her to ask an owl whom all the birds consider wise. She's nervous (since owls eat mice), but she lets Jeremy take her to meet the owl, who agrees to help because he had heard of her husband. He advises her to go to the rats who live in the rosebush. He says the rats could move her house to the lee of a stone in the garden, which isn't far from where the cinder block is now, but the plow would avoid it, on the other side of the stone.

Mrs. Frisby meets several rats, including Brutus, Justin, Nicodemus, Arthur, and Isabella. (I don't recall Arthur or Isabella being in the movie at all, and I'm less than 100% certain about Brutus. I should rewatch it.) And she learns that Mr. Ages is a friend of the rats, as was her husband, though she had no idea Jonathan had known them. Anyway, Nicodemus is the leader of the rats, though his description in the book is considerably different from his appearance in the movie. Actually, I could say all the animals are somewhat different... while I thought they looked more realistic in the movie than anthropomorphized animals usually do, in the book I would say they were even more realistic. And they didn't wear clothes (despite the book cover on this page). Nicodemus tells Mrs. Frisby a very long story, which goes into far more detail than the movie. They used to be ordinary rats, but one day, years ago, they were captured and taken to a laboratory at NIMH, where they received various injections that made them smarter, stronger, and longer-lived. Also they were taught to read, a concept which it took them awhile to figure out, but once they realized what reading was, they became quite good at it. (This is one thing I like much better about the book, since in the movie the ability to read was instantaneous. Of course, I still have some of the same problems with the book that I did with the movie, mainly the idea that the injections really made the rats- and several mice, including Jonathan and Mr. Ages- more intelligent than they had been. Because it's clear even in the book that all animals have language and can even be taught to read, and understand various human concepts that animals in the real world surely don't comprehend, let alone emulate as they do in the book. But I was willing to overlook that in the movie, and I'm even more willing to do so in the book, which requires a much lesser suspension of disbelief.)

Anyway, what I love most about the book is just how much detail it goes into about the rats' capture, their time at NIMH, their eventual escape, and all that they did after their escape. Plus, there was a lot more detail about their "Plan." (Incidentally, while reading the book and seeing that the word was spelled with a capital P, it put me in mind of The Plan from the backstory of my own book.) The rats, or most of them, want to move to an isolated valley and start their own civilization, without the need to steal food and electricity from humans. An old friend of Nicodemus named Jenner was against the plan, and he and some followers had left prior to the start of the book. (In the movie, Jenner was a villain, but in the book he merely had a dissenting opinion, rather than being evil. And we never actually meet him, just hear about him in Nicodemus's story.) The book also has some interesting philosophy about the intelligence of even normal rats (and their distant ancestors), and the possible reasons humans eclipsed them in the first place. Anyway, eventually Mrs. Frisby's house gets moved, which is the climax of the movie, but in the book it's far less dramatic (because there's no storm, no villain, and no magic). It's actually kind of anticlimactic, which I appreciated. The book's climax is about how the rats make their escape from the rosebush, the next day. They must leave much sooner than they had planned, because Mrs. Frisby had learned that someone, either exterminators or NIMH, were going to be coming for them. (She had learned this in the movie as well, but there it added urgency to the scene in which her house was being moved.) Anyway... there is some sadness in the book, but the ending is mostly happy. And there's a nice epilogue to close the whole story, while still leaving a possibility that more stories might someday be told about the rats of NIMH.

And... I've said too much, perhaps, but I've also left out lots of details. I kind of feel like I should be saying more about just how amazing the book is, but... I really don't know what to say. I suppose I could mention that the author's daughter later wrote a couple of sequels, which I have no idea whether or not I'll ever read, nor whether they could really be considered canonical. (Apparently they include some details from the movie that differ from the events of the book.) But anyway, I'll just really glad to have finally read this.