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explodinghead 's review for:
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
by Robert C. O'Brien
Very cute book, and I'll admit that part of the reason I finally got around to reading it is because it is SHORT and I'm trying to make my reading goal for the year. This was made back in the days where you could just have 1/3 of your book be a guy telling you a story in past tense. If this book were written today, Mrs. Frisby would be an uncertain teen leading a rebellion to get out of the National Institute of Mental Health. Instead, this book kinda yada-yada-yada's all of those specifics and drama. My creative fiction professor always said if you're not writing about the most important, most interesting moment of your character's life, then why aren't you doing that instead? And here, O'Brien gets by through some simple prose, vivid ideas, and darn cute animals.
In terms of visiting a book-for-kids that I missed out on when I was little one, I didn't MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH nearly as much as A WRINKLE IN TIME or PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH. Too many weird questions kept occurring to me as I spent time in this world. Possible spoilers here, but isn't it weird that Mr. Frisby married a totally normal mouse when he was like as smart as a human? Imagine if I was like "mom and dad, meet Delilah, she's as smart as a field mouse." And beyond that, I have questions about how these rats communicate. Even the "normal" critters speak competently, but only those from NIMH can read... but... it kinda feels like the normal critters are plenty smart and capable of learning new things? I know these aren't the kinds of things kids would be asking, and I love that these rats' super power is essentially just Reading. That's a great message: yes kids, reading is like a super power! And if you get really good at it, you can break free from this stupid school and live under a rose bush in the middle of some farm in upstate New York. Go Mets.
But also at the end of all this, I realized that I still needed one more book AFTER this one to reach my 2023 reading goal. Oh well!
In terms of visiting a book-for-kids that I missed out on when I was little one, I didn't MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH nearly as much as A WRINKLE IN TIME or PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH. Too many weird questions kept occurring to me as I spent time in this world. Possible spoilers here, but isn't it weird that Mr. Frisby married a totally normal mouse when he was like as smart as a human? Imagine if I was like "mom and dad, meet Delilah, she's as smart as a field mouse." And beyond that, I have questions about how these rats communicate. Even the "normal" critters speak competently, but only those from NIMH can read... but... it kinda feels like the normal critters are plenty smart and capable of learning new things? I know these aren't the kinds of things kids would be asking, and I love that these rats' super power is essentially just Reading. That's a great message: yes kids, reading is like a super power! And if you get really good at it, you can break free from this stupid school and live under a rose bush in the middle of some farm in upstate New York. Go Mets.
But also at the end of all this, I realized that I still needed one more book AFTER this one to reach my 2023 reading goal. Oh well!