Reviews with content warning for Death - Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh

5 stars, loved it, permanent new fixture in the home library! If you like rodent fiction, this is your jam. I haven't read the Redwall books in a while, but I'd say this is comparable, though maybe a bit slower paced. A widowed mouse has to move her family before their home is plowed up for spring, but her son has pneumonia and cannot survive the trip. Daring adventures ensue as she seeks help.

This book is full of values like self-sacrifice, honest work, bravery, comradery, doing the hard thing instead of the easy thing, respecting the elderly, etc. There's no bad behavior from the kids, who take good care of their sick sibling. I also love that there aren't any real "bad guys", except maybe the cat (not personified), or the humans just doing human things: farming, catching/exterminating rats, running lab experiments, etc. None of it malicious, just prudent.

Really hard to nail down an age range, because it seems like an appropriate readaloud for very young children and great fun for adults, too. I am waiting to introduce it to my children, though, because I think they'll need to be middle grade to fully appreciate it. I don't want to rob them of that enjoyment by introducing it too early.

Honestly, just read it and let things unfold. I'm keeping the content notes a little more vague than usual; it's better enjoyed if you don't know what's coming.

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, and Confinement

Minor: Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Content notes, the vague version:

- No magic or spiritual elements. Mention of Christmas lights.

- No romance, but there is a childish crush, and wistful talk of marriage. Only a page or two.

- The book begins with a VERY sick child mouse. There's a very real concern he might not make it.

- Lots of nature-related peril and a matter-of-fact approach to death. Nothing graphic--we hear of deaths and their sometimes terrible causes (

electrocution, shot by hunters, eaten by predators, extermination methods

), and it's talked about very bluntly, but not witnessed. Some animal characters are missing, presumed dead.

None clearly

die that we've gotten attached to, but

it's left uncertain who exactly was the one who died.

One old man's body is found in the woods (natural causes), and is buried.

- There are secrets and half-truths, mostly from mother to children. She must "promise that you will never tell anyone anything at all about what you see and hear" in a new group, but also, she doesn't want them to worry, so she hides where she's going and what she's planning.

- Very traditional gender roles, when they make an appearance.

- Rats steal from humans, and this is often presented in a mixed/neutral way. Sometimes necessary, sometimes wrong, sometimes both.

- Across one or two pages: they read in an encyclopedia that "Millions of years ago, he said, rats seems to be ahead of all the other animals, seems to be making a civilization of their own. They were well organized and built quite complicated villages in the fields. Their descendants today are the rats known as prairie dogs."
...
"Eventually the monkeys came out of the woods, walking on their hind legs, and took over the prairies and almost everything else. It was then that the rats were driven to become scavengers and thieves, living on the fringes of a world run by men."
...
"Would rats, too, have shed their tails and learned to walk erect? Would they have made tools?"

jaqylantern's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

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