Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH is a 1971 children's book by Robert C. O'Brien. Illustrated by Zena Bernstein, it won the 1972 Newbery Medal. A film adaptation, The Secret of NIMH, was released in 1982. The novel relates the plight of a widowed field mouse, Mrs. Frisby, who seeks the aid of a group of former laboratory rats in rescuing her home from destruction by a farmer's plow, and of the history of the rats' escape from the laboratory and development of a literate and technological society. The work was inspired by the research of Dr. John B. Calhoun on mice and rat population dynamics at the National Institute of Mental Health. Mrs. Frisby's son, Timothy, falls ill just as the farmer Mr. Fitzgibbon begins preparation for spring...