SLIS 5420 - Module 4 - Holes & Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Bibliography

O'Brien, R. C., & Bernstein, Z. (1971). Mrs. frisby and the rats of NIMH (1st ed. ed.). New York: Atheneum.

Summary

Mrs. Frisby is a field mouse living in Mr. Fitzgibbon’s vegetable patch along with her children. When her youngest child, Timothy, catches pneumonia, she is rushed to get help from her neighbor Mr. Ages, who has knowledge of medicine and herbs. Mr. Ages gives her medicine to save Timothy from the pneumonia, but instructs Mrs. Frisby that he cannot go out into the cold for at least three weeks. Mrs. Frisby is relieved, but knows that spring is fast approaching and Mr. Fitzgibbon will soon plow his vegetable garden, destroying their winter home and killing anyone who is left behind. Desperate for help, Mrs. Frisby asks the advice of Jeremy the crow, whose life she saved from the Fitzgibbon’s cat ‘Dragon’. Jeremy takes her to see the Owl, who is older than any other creature he knows. The Owl advises Mrs. Frisby to ask help of the rats who live in the rose bush near the tractor shed. Mrs. Frisby takes his advice and learns that the rats were subject to experiments at NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) and have longer life spans and heightened intelligence. They are willing to help Mrs. Frisby, but are unable due to Dragon posing a potentially lethal threat. Mrs. Frisby volunteers to drug the cat, but is captured in the attempt. While captured, she overhears that men, supposedly from NIMH, are coming to kill the rats. She escapes with help from one of the rats and informs them of the humans plans. They prepare to escape, while a group of rats move Mrs. Frisby’s house and children out of danger. The rats escape to their new home in the mountain valley, and Timothy survives the winter.

Impressions

The book is a very interesting look into the issues of limits of science. Almost like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the NIMH produced rats are beyond the control of their creators. The fact that the rats act opposite of the stereotype that society has placed on them is a very thought provoking in that it could potentially serve as an allegory for not judging based on preconceived notions.

Reviews

“There's something very strange about the rats living under the rosebush at the Fitzgibbon farm. But Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with a sick child, is in dire straits and must turn to these exceptional creatures for assistance. Soon she finds herself flying on the back of a crow, slipping sleeping powder into a ferocious cat's dinner dish, and helping 108 brilliant, laboratory-enhanced rats escape to a utopian civilization of their own design, no longer to live "on the edge of somebody else's, like fleas on a dog's back."

This unusual novel, winner of the Newbery Medal (among a host of other accolades) snags the reader on page one and reels in steadily all the way through to the exhilarating conclusion. Robert O'Brien has created a small but complete world in which a mother's concern for her son overpowers her fear of all her natural enemies and allows her to make some extraordinary discoveries along the way. O'Brien's incredible tale, along with Zena Bernstein's appealing ink drawings, ensures that readers will never again look at alley rats and field mice in the same way.”

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. (2010). Amazon.com Editorial Reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Frisby-Rats-Robert-OBrien/dp/0689206518/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266194386&sr=1-1

“In an effort to move her family safely away from the farmer’s spring plow, a widowed field mouse, Mrs. Frisby, enlists the help of rats who are former captives of the National Institute of Mental Health and possess extraordinary powers. This engrossing fantasy is full of adventure, friendship, and heroism.”

Weisman, K. (2006). 15 Classic Read Alouds. Book Links, 15(6), 9-11.

Library Use

The chapters are short and easy to read, and as one of the reviews already pointed out, would make a great chapter book to read aloud to children.

Bibliography

Sachar, L. (1998). Holes (1st ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Summary

Stanley Yelnats (his first is the same as his last, only reversed) is the third generation of Stanley Yelnats to have to bear the curse of their “pig stealing great-great-grandfather”. There is, of course, no such thing as curses, but it doesn’t help that bad luck seems to follow his family around. Like now, Stanley is in trouble with the law for something he didn’t do, like stealing the shoes of Clyde Livingstone, the famous baseball player who donated his shoes to the orphanage to raise money through an auction. So Stanley is sent to Camp Green Lake (where there is no lake, and nothing is green) for rehabilitation, which is achieved by digging holes five feet wide and five feet deep. He makes friends with the other “campers” and becomes close with the camper known as Zero. When Zero runs away from camp into the middle of the desert, Stanley feels that it’s his responsibility to go after him. They take refuge in the mountains, living off muddy water and wild onions, and make it back to the camp where Stanley’s name has been cleared, the Warden’s true intent behind the camp is revealed, and Zero is able to leave with Stanley thanks to Stanley’s lawyer.

Impressions

Of all the books I read for this module, this one has to be my favorite. The way the plot is interwoven (which I didn’t mention because my summary would have been far too long for a summary) is simply amazing. Sachar did such an amazing job tying everything together, developing the characters, and making the situation feel believable, it is not surprising that the book is a Newbery winner.

Reviews

“As the winner of the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award in 1998, as well as the basis for the 2003 film adaptation (which grossed $67.3 million), Sachar's darkly comic tale has all the ingredients of a YA reading-group hit--crime, adventure, treasure and identifiable, likable characters. Falsely imprisoned in the juvenile detention center Camp Green Lake, Stanley Yelnats discovers clues to a secret treasure while digging holes in the rocky lakebed, the punishment impinged upon the prisoners by The Warden, who's obviously hiding something. But what? Stanley endeavors to find out, and according to Kirkus, "Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles." Vicky Smith, Director of McArthur Library in Biddeford, Me., who used Sachar's novel in her own fifth-grade book group, says that the children loved the characters and enjoyed the challenge of the shifting narratives. She also notes that the discussion helped struggling readers to better understand the text. Reprinted as part of Random House's Reader's Circle series, this "rugged, engrossing adventure" will engage a wide range of young readers.”

(2005). HOLES. Kirkus Reviews, 73(8), 14.

“Louis Sachar has written an exceptionally funny, and heart-rending, shaggy dog story of his own. With its breadth and ambition, Holes may surprise a lot of Sachar fans, but it shouldn't. With his Wayside School stories and — this reviewer's favorite — the Marvin Redpost books, Sachar has shown himself a writer of humor and heart, with an instinctive aversion to the expected. Holes is filled with twists in the lane, moments when the action is happily going along only to turn toward somewhere else that you gradually, eventually, sometimes on the last page, realize was the truest destination all along.”

Sutton, R. (1998). Holes. Horn Book Magazine, 74(5), 593-595.

Library Use

This would be an excellent book to recommend to a patron who felt that they didn’t fit in and were always making mistakes. Stanley is overweight and feels like the unluckiest person in the world, but always remains hopeful.