Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh
by Robert C. O'Brien, Zena Bernstein · first published 1970
38% recommend63% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A children's animal adventure following a mouse mother and a colony of escaped lab rats. The story centers on self-reliance, improvised tools, and hiding from humans, and suits young readers.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, is faced with a terrible problem. She must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death. But her youngest son, Timothy, lies ill with pneumonia and must not be moved. Fortunately, she encounters the rats of NIMH, an extraordinary breed of highly intelligent creatures, who come up with a brilliant solution to her dilemma. And Mrs. Frisby in turn renders them a great service.
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…favorites: - The Goosebumps series is popular. - There are a lot of middle grade mystery series like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew - A few of my personal favorites from childhood: The Pushcart War; Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH; A Wrinkle in Time; The Phantom Tollbooth; the Chronicles of Narnia (warning: heavy Christian symbolism); Bunnicula; Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle; Mr. Popper's Penguins; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; anything…
on “Ask HN: How get started with reading books?” ↗…Magee Rascal Frindle Hatchet (Gary Paulsen) Mr. Popper’s Penguins (young) Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing (Juy Blume) Pippi Longstocking Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (young) A Wrinkle in Time Moccasin Trail Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH From the Mixed Up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler The Egypt Game The Phantom Tollbooth (young) Holes (little older) Sideways Stories from Wayside School (young) The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Homer…
on “The original “Bambi”” ↗Oh man, the first time I read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH when I was a kid, I was enthralled. My best friend and I would always play that we were the rats and had to hide from the humans while improvising tools, gathering food, and building a base. This reminds…
on “Ask HN: What game do you wish existed?” ↗…Calhoun began building new utopias to encourage creative behavior by keeping mice physically and mentally nourished. This research, in turn, inspired a children’s book named after Calhoun’s workplace—Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, wherein a group of rats escape from a colony designed to stimulate their intelligence.) One of my favorite books growing up - and indeed among the very few I read voluntarily.
on “Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?” ↗Not related to the guy at all.... Loved the book, "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" when I was a kid. I see echoes of his work everywhere from my childhood though. Or was overpopulation just in the 70's Zeitgeist with movies like "Soylent Green", etc? I remember a traveling demonstration…
on “Two new books on John Calhoun and his rodent experiments” ↗Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. It's a sci-fi adventure with self-reliance and counter-cultural themes.
on “Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?” ↗I've been mainly reading SF Magazines for the first half of 2016. Books read: - Animal Weapons: The Evolution of Battle by Douglas J. Emlen - Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien Magazines read: - Interzone: Issues 262 - 264 - Asimov's SF: July 2015 - March 2016 - New York Review of Science Fiction: Issue 330 (Special issue with tributes to the late David…
on “Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?” ↗…for, you hedonist sinner, Man shall not live by bread alone and hell is other people. So, is there already a comparative literary and/or sociological study of Steinbecks 'Of Mice and Men' and O'Brien's 'Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH'?
on “1960s Mouse Utopias Led to Grim Predictions for Future of Humanity (2015)” ↗Anyone know if Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971) would be worth a reread?
on “Rat Rods: Teaching a rat to drive a car” ↗Why did the film adaptation of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH into The Secret of NIMH rewrite the end plot with that stupid mystical jewel-locket-thing? They pretty much rewrote the entire premise of the book. It was originally about lab rats who acquired human-level…
on “Letter from Orwell to his publisher regarding 1984” ↗Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. "Their leader, Nicodemus, tells Mrs. Frisby of the rats' capture by scientists working for a laboratory located at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the subsequent experiments that…
on ““Brainy” mice raise hope of better treatments for cognitive disorders” ↗This. My sister used to read "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" to her students and that's how I heard of it. We loved it and were furious at the film for completely inverting the author's message. In the book, Mrs. Frisbee is saved by Science (the rats) but in the…
on “The Doomed Mouse Utopia That Inspired the 'Rats of NIMH'” ↗This has been written about for decades, Flowers for Algernon, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and though it was by training instead of experimentation, Ratman's Notebooks.
on “Hypothalamic Menin regulates systemic aging and cognitive decline” ↗This reminds me of the vacuum substory in Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, except vacuums replaced by AI. Basically: nobody wants AI, but soon everyone needs AI to sort through all the garbage being generated by AI. Eventually you spend more time managing your AI that you…
on “Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking” ↗I'm probably not the only one now remembering Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971) and/or the 1982 animated movie. My initial reaction is that this is less worrying than a transgenic approach. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Frisby_and_the_Rats_of_NI...
on “Researchers have created a mouse with a partly human brain” ↗