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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
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
One of my favorite childhood books, still doesn't disappoint!
adventurous
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No