Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C O'Brien

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C O'Brien was published in 1975 and won the Newberry award. I was not excited to read this book; however, once I started reading it, I realized there was a lot more to it than a mouse on the cover and was deserving of the literary prize.

Mrs. Frisby is a single mother with a very sick young mouse. She has to find a way to help her child, and is led to the Rats of Nimh, a group of highly intelligent rodents. I don't want to give things away, but imagine if the mouse from Flowers for Algernon wrote his own book - it would be this book. I found myself wondering if O'Brien was inspired by Daniel Keyes.

Quotes I liked:

Page 129 "By teaching us how to read, they taught us how to escape."

Page 171 ". . . a thief's life is always based on somebody else's work."

I love that this story shows the importance of learning, knowledge, persistence, timing, friendship, and reading. This is a great middle grade chapter book with wonderful illustrations by Zena Bernstein.

Here is a picture of the differences between a preemie's brain and a full term baby's brain. This is why we give books to babies in the NICU. We want them to have every chance possible.

I've been low on books lately, but yesterday, I found 50 brand new Usborne books at one of my local thrift shops. I paid $35 dollars for all of them. If you are cleaning out bookshelves, we are always happy to take your gently used books for use in the NICU. Those we can't use, we send to classrooms or Little Free Libraries.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.