Okay, it’s time for me to admit it. I don’t like fantasy books. Remember when I tried to read The High King? Epic fail. Fantasy is literally the last genre that I will pick off the shelves. Well, let’s put that in past tense. Fantasy WAS the last genre I WOULD pick off the shelves. Enter Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. How can you not love this little world of rats, mice and the wonderful heroine that is Mrs. Frisby?
In this Newbery award winner, Mrs. Frisby is forced to make some decisions and take some risks when her youngest son falls sick right before they must move to their summer home. If she doesn’t find a solution, their home will be plowed over by the local farmer. When she meets the rats of NIMH, her eyes and heart are opened to a part of her world she didn’t even know existed. Mrs. Frisby’s story took me along on a ride of trust and triumph, sacrifice and victory. Love. This. Story.
While it may not match up with today’s fantasy novels, I will forever consider it to be my door-opener to those things left to our imaginations, those stories that we won’t find here in our world, only in the pages of our books.
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
by Robert C. O’Brien
Originally published in 1971
Ashley
February 26, 2011 at 2:42 pm
Love Mrs. Frisby!! Such a great book! The books that opened the doorway to fantasy for me were Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword. Now, I’m willing to give fantasy a try, where before, I wouldn’t even take it off the shelf.