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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A beautiful, delicate book.
O'Brien smoothly spins the story of a widowed mouse and a growing community of rats into a tale full of bravery, discovery and new beginnings. I feel in my heart this is a very special book for children, for it portrays without pretensions the blossoming of a new civilization, itself a product of our own fascination with genesis and change. The way it is portrayed could be perfectly seen as a metaphor of the oppressed and all the groups who see their identities and futures forged by the powerful and mighty. And still these groups thrive, as one of the rats leaders states, on conflict. It is on conflict where the protagonists show their bravery and a tremendous will to be free, to be happy. For children, a protagonist like Mrs. Frisby is an excellent example of how fear is not a trait to be purged of our system, but controlled and used to find a solution to our problems. She is not fearless, but her love for the ones she cares about gives her the strength to fight back.
The author leaves enough space for speculation, and though it may be frustrating for some to not know what happened to that special rat colony by the end of the novel, this decision increases its nuance. For certainty is never a given in life, and most of the time we are only consoled by our memories and the limited perspective our experience can provide to us. The book is, after all, focused on Mrs. Frisby's point of view, so it would be dismissive of its stylistic decisions to suddenly provide on the epilogue a full disclosure, just for the sake of pleasing our ceaseless love for univocal endings.
And also, in a way, O'Brien seems to end the story of the rats as if preventing us to further intrude in a very personal affair. We may be responsible for their evolution, but we certainly have no right to intrude on their future. Their woes and glories are theirs, never mind their past, and we as spectators should reflect about that.
O'Brien smoothly spins the story of a widowed mouse and a growing community of rats into a tale full of bravery, discovery and new beginnings. I feel in my heart this is a very special book for children, for it portrays without pretensions the blossoming of a new civilization, itself a product of our own fascination with genesis and change. The way it is portrayed could be perfectly seen as a metaphor of the oppressed and all the groups who see their identities and futures forged by the powerful and mighty. And still these groups thrive, as one of the rats leaders states, on conflict. It is on conflict where the protagonists show their bravery and a tremendous will to be free, to be happy. For children, a protagonist like Mrs. Frisby is an excellent example of how fear is not a trait to be purged of our system, but controlled and used to find a solution to our problems. She is not fearless, but her love for the ones she cares about gives her the strength to fight back.
The author leaves enough space for speculation, and though it may be frustrating for some to not know what happened to that special rat colony by the end of the novel, this decision increases its nuance. For certainty is never a given in life, and most of the time we are only consoled by our memories and the limited perspective our experience can provide to us. The book is, after all, focused on Mrs. Frisby's point of view, so it would be dismissive of its stylistic decisions to suddenly provide on the epilogue a full disclosure, just for the sake of pleasing our ceaseless love for univocal endings.
And also, in a way, O'Brien seems to end the story of the rats as if preventing us to further intrude in a very personal affair. We may be responsible for their evolution, but we certainly have no right to intrude on their future. Their woes and glories are theirs, never mind their past, and we as spectators should reflect about that.
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
What a clever, fun read! I love the idea of a group of super smart rats trying to outsmart humans. Can't wait to hear what the kids thought of this book club selection. Unfortunately I already know Charlie was not impressed. I'm not sure how you couldn't like this one.
Someday I will write a better review for this but for now...
I LOVED this book and had the hardest time putting it down. The ending...I need MORE asap. The MG-style writing was easy-going and kept me hooked the whole time. I loved all the characters! I can tell this is from a different generation because there's some darkness you don't see much in kids' books nowadays. (works for me)
All in all, 5 stars! So far this is my favorite book in my October reading. Now to finally watch the cartoon...
I LOVED this book and had the hardest time putting it down. The ending...I need MORE asap. The MG-style writing was easy-going and kept me hooked the whole time. I loved all the characters! I can tell this is from a different generation because there's some darkness you don't see much in kids' books nowadays. (works for me)
All in all, 5 stars! So far this is my favorite book in my October reading. Now to finally watch the cartoon...
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A slightly sad tale, well told, with circumstances you can believe as a reader.
I'm happy to revisit this beloved childhood classic today and discover that yes, it's still an outstanding (though quick) story. The characters make an indelible impression, and the structure is fun, with a relatively lengthy nested narrative that's just as compelling as the supporting frame around it. In the present plot, the protagonist is a widowed fieldmouse whose youngest child is too sick to travel from their winter home, which the family will need to do soon to avoid being plowed over by the local farmer. She bravely steps further and further from her comfort zone to find a solution, eventually intersecting with the other titular party, a secretive community of rats who live nearby. And then they show her technological wonders and explain their origins via that extended flashback, relating how they were once experimental subjects who grew more intelligent than their researchers realized and ultimately used those skills to break free and create a new home for themselves.
That education and escape from captivity is the core of the book, and it's rendered as thrillingly as any jailbreak in fiction, while never losing the overarching stakes of young Timothy's health, a crisis that's subsequently returned to and resolved. Along the way there are new dangers that emerge for the mice and rats alike, and the entire venture ends on a bittersweet yet triumphant note.
The worldbuilding of these creatures' society is simple yet effective, skillfully conveying their lived reality with a minimum of exposition, and the publication only really shows its half-century of age in some creaky paternalism here and there. (The heroine is great and repeatedly passes the Bechdel test, but the male figures dominate events and make passing reference to the more frivolous pursuits of "the wives" of their colony.) I also think author Robert C. O'Brien could have hit his intended moral of the value of hard work over lazy reliance / stealing from others a bit less stridently, given the problematic potential implications of that assertion, but at least that's a concern that will likely pass over the heads of his primary audience.
For the most part it's a lovely tale overall, and although I don't intend to continue on to the two sequels written by the writer's daughter Jane Leslie Conly after his death -- or the animated Don Bluth adaptation of this volume that adds an unnecessary and bizarre supernatural element -- it's been a joy to see the original again with fresh eyes.
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That education and escape from captivity is the core of the book, and it's rendered as thrillingly as any jailbreak in fiction, while never losing the overarching stakes of young Timothy's health, a crisis that's subsequently returned to and resolved. Along the way there are new dangers that emerge for the mice and rats alike, and the entire venture ends on a bittersweet yet triumphant note.
The worldbuilding of these creatures' society is simple yet effective, skillfully conveying their lived reality with a minimum of exposition, and the publication only really shows its half-century of age in some creaky paternalism here and there. (The heroine is great and repeatedly passes the Bechdel test, but the male figures dominate events and make passing reference to the more frivolous pursuits of "the wives" of their colony.) I also think author Robert C. O'Brien could have hit his intended moral of the value of hard work over lazy reliance / stealing from others a bit less stridently, given the problematic potential implications of that assertion, but at least that's a concern that will likely pass over the heads of his primary audience.
For the most part it's a lovely tale overall, and although I don't intend to continue on to the two sequels written by the writer's daughter Jane Leslie Conly after his death -- or the animated Don Bluth adaptation of this volume that adds an unnecessary and bizarre supernatural element -- it's been a joy to see the original again with fresh eyes.
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6288479-joe-kessler
--Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog