I may have read this when I was little, but I couldn't remember so I thought I would take a stab at it again. I find that I'm not into the animal books that much, so it took me a while to get into it, but around page 100 when Nicodemus starts to tell the story of the rats of NIMH I was hooked. While the beginning is full of details and great anthropomorphism of the animal characters, there is something about the tale of the rats that is so much more exciting.
After Mrs. Frisby's son gets pneumonia and can't be moved, she finds that winter is ending and they must move to their summer home before they are plowed under by the farmer. With the help of a crow and an owl, Mrs. Frisby is told to see the rats who will help her with her problem as long as she tells them her belated husband was Jonathon Frisby. She soon finds out the rats are more than you would expect and they tell her the tale of how they came to be hiding under the rosebush and how her husband was involved. Being much smarter than the average rats, they devise a plan to move her home so that she will not have to move her son and they won't be killed if they stay.
Once the rats are part of the picture there is a lot more action and it starts to feel almost like a spy book with them creeping about the laboratory and trying to find ways to escape and live. A Classic for a reason.
Interest level: Grades 3-6 Reading level: Grade 5
Genre: They say Fantasy, but I would think its more Action/Sci-Fi. The animals aren't really talking to humans and there are no magical elements.
First in series.
Comparable titles: Stuart Little, The Trumpet of the Swan, Wind in the Willows
Book Connections: Lab Animals, The Seasons, medicinal herbs, building your own society, the habits of rats and mice
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