Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

This fantasy book by Robert C. O'Brien follows recently widowed mouse Mrs. Frisby, who must turn to a colony of rats who live in a rosebush to save her ailing son Timothy. After meeting Nicodemus, the leader of the rats, she hears the story of how they were experimented on at the NIMH laboratory and taught to read, enabling them to create their own human-like society, complete with technology and complex machines. Mrs. Frisby must confront farmer Fitzgibbons' cat Dragon, find a way to move her house out of the way of the farmer's plow, and save Nicodemus' colony from electrocution and capture. This is an interesting read full of plot twists and surprising insights on confronting stereotypes. Kids will enjoy this standalone book because of how out of the ordinary it is, they will empathize with Mrs. Frisby’s situation, and they will begin to see reading as a form of liberation.