I got the book again later in life and this has culminated in reading it aloud to my 5 yr old son (*with only a few slight edits/explanations of the more complicated passages).

Frisby and the Rats of NIMH became the basis for the animated film The Secret of NIMH, the directorial debut of Don Bluth. Constance Vidor commented that "Conly's books continue her father' emphasis on the theme of social responsibility while weaving in new characters with more personal problems". The beginning was a little boring and the very traditional gender roles of the mice annoyed me a bit at first. The character of Jenner is made a villain who is still present with the rats, rather than having left them before the story begins.I love those children's books told from the perspective of animals, because it really forces you to change your point of view when approaching a story (those poor mice really live every single day of their life avoiding to get killed! Do not dismiss this formidable 1971 treatise about misunderstood animals by imagining a cute “Disney” tale. The entirety of my own childhood was filled with talking animals, and this is a truly unique story that any kid (or adult) with such proclivities could appreciate. His last book, Z is for Zachariah was nearly completed at the time of his death; the last few chapters were written from notes by this wife and one of his daughters. In a paper titled "The Critical Reader in Children's Metafiction", literary scholar Joe Sanders wrote that the book's emphasis on the rats' abilities to read mirrors the "growing reading abilities of the novel's own target audience".

Frisby, a housewife mouse with no special enhancements from NIMH of her own, shows amazing courage, strength, and composure. There are a couple of plot holes that as an adult, I think should have been fixed, but that does not detract from the overall story. A group of rats, led by one named Jenner, rejected this plan and left the nest at some point before Frisby's arrival.

We also have the occasional misfortune of horse-flies in the summertime and the rare autumn visit of a mouse who makes it past the notice of our savage (and somehow still fabulous) cat. Here I take a second look at a previously enjoyed novel and give me crew me second reflections, as it were, upon visitin' it again .