Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

First edition cover with Bernstein artwork
Author	Robert C. O'Brien
Illustrator	Zena Bernstein
Series	Rats of NIMH
Genre	Science fiction, Children, Fantasy novel
Published	1971 Atheneum Books
Media type	Print
Pages	233
ISBN	0-689-86220-2 (second Aladdin paperback edition, 1999)
OCLC	52814814
LC Class	PZ10.3 O19 Mi
Followed by	Racso and the Rats of NIMH

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH is a popular children's book written in 1971 by Robert C. O'Brien. Zena Bernstein created the pictures for the book. It won the important Newbery Medal in 1972. Later, the story was made into an animated movie called The Secret of NIMH in 1982.

The book tells the exciting story of Mrs. Frisby, a widowed field mouse. She needs help to save her home from a farmer's plow. She also needs to keep her son from getting very sick. To do this, she asks for help from a group of smart rats. These rats used to be part of a science experiment. The story also explains how the rats escaped and built their own advanced society.

The author got the idea for the book from real research. A scientist named John B. Calhoun studied how mice and rats lived in groups. He did this research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) from the 1940s to the 1960s.

Story Summary

Mrs. Frisby is a mother mouse who lives with her family in a field. Her son, Timothy, is very sick with pneumonia. At the same time, the farmer, Mr. Fitzgibbon, is getting ready to plow his garden. This is where the Frisby family lives. Normally, Mrs. Frisby would move her family to their summer home. But Timothy is too sick to survive the cold journey.

Mrs. Frisby gets medicine from her friend, Mr. Ages, who is an older white mouse. On her way back, she saves a young crow named Jeremy from Dragon, the farmer's cat. This is the same cat that killed her husband, Jonathan. Jeremy suggests that Mrs. Frisby ask an owl in the forest for help. Jeremy flies Mrs. Frisby to the owl's tree. The owl first says he cannot help. But then he learns she is Jonathan Frisby's widow. Because of this, he tells Mrs. Frisby to ask for help from the rats living in a rosebush nearby.

The Smart Rats of NIMH

Mrs. Frisby finds out that the rats have a very smart and organized society. They have amazing technology, like elevators. They even use electricity for lights and heat. They have learned human skills, like storing food for winter. Their leader, Nicodemus, tells Mrs. Frisby their story.

The rats were once captured by scientists at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The scientists did experiments on them. These experiments made the rats much smarter. They learned to read, write, and use complex machines. They also became stronger and lived longer. This new intelligence helped them escape the NIMH labs. They then moved to their current home.

Jonathan Frisby, Mrs. Frisby's husband, and Mr. Ages were very important. They were the only two mice who survived the NIMH experiments. They helped the rats escape. Because of their great respect for Jonathan, the rats agree to help Mrs. Frisby. They will move her house to a safe place away from the plow.

Nicodemus also tells Mrs. Frisby about "The Plan." This plan is for the rats to stop relying on humans for food and supplies. Some rats think taking from humans is like stealing. So, they want to start a new, independent farming colony. One rat named Jenner strongly disagreed with The Plan. He left the colony with some other rats before Mrs. Frisby arrived.

Saving the Frisby Home

To move Mrs. Frisby's home, the rats need to make Dragon, the farmer's cat, fall asleep. It's too dangerous to work with the cat nearby. Mr. Ages has a broken leg, so he cannot put the sleeping medicine in Dragon's food bowl. The rats are too big to fit into the hole in the wall to enter the house. So, Mrs. Frisby bravely volunteers to go.

However, the farmer's son, Billy, catches Mrs. Frisby. He puts her in a cage. While captured, Mrs. Frisby hears the Fitzgibbons family talking. They mention an event at a hardware store. A group of rats were hurt by electricity there. This event has caught the attention of some men. These men have offered to get rid of the rat colony on the Fitzgibbons' land for free.

At night, a rat named Justin comes to save Mrs. Frisby. He helps her escape from the cage. Mrs. Frisby warns Justin about what she heard. They believe the rats at the hardware store were from Jenner's group. They also think the men offering to help are from NIMH. They are looking specifically for the escaped rats.

The rats successfully move Mrs. Frisby's house. This allows Timothy to recover before moving to their summer home. The rats had not finished moving everything for The Plan. But they managed to destroy their underground rooms. They made it look like they were just regular rats by leaving rubbish behind. As most rats moved, ten rats stayed behind. They did this so the exterminators would not think the rat hole was empty. When the exterminators filled the hole with poisonous gas, eight of the ten rats escaped. Two rats died in the hole. The book does not say exactly who these two rats were.

Once Timothy gets better, Mrs. Frisby and her family move to their summer home. Mrs. Frisby then tells her children the full story of their father and the brave rats of NIMH.

Other Stories About the Rats

After Robert C. O'Brien passed away, his daughter, Jane Leslie Conly, wrote two more books about the rats of NIMH.

• Racso and the Rats of NIMH is about a city rat named Racso. He runs away to join the new rat colony. He becomes friends with Timothy and helps save the colony from a flood.
• In R-T, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH, the rats rescue two lost human children. The children then help to save the colony before winter arrives.

Movie and Future Plans

In 1982, an animated movie called The Secret of NIMH was released. Don Bluth directed it. The movie added some magical parts that were not in the book. For example, Nicodemus is shown as a wise, old wizard with magic powers. In the book, he is just a smart rat like the others. The character Jenner is also a villain in the movie. In the book, he had left the rats before the story began. The crow Jeremy also has a much bigger, funnier role in the movie. Also, the Frisby family's name was changed to "Brisby" in the movie. This was to avoid confusion with the toy Frisbee.

Future Movies

• In 2009, Paramount Pictures planned a new movie based on the book. Neil Burger was set to write the script.
• On March 4, 2015, MGM bought the rights to the book. They wanted to make a new movie that mixed live-action and animation. Michael Berg was chosen to write the script.
• On April 10, 2019, it was announced that the Russo brothers would help produce this new movie.