Critical response
Since its release, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH has received widespread praise from scholars, critics of children's literature, and children themselves.[3] In 1985, Alethea K Helbig called Mrs. Frisby "a combination of science fiction and animal fantasy" that described "fantastic situations with scientific accuracy".[8] Scholar Paula T. Connolly noted the book for Conly's "gradations of moral understanding and culpability" while dealing with "such problematic issues as the roles of science and technology, identity, idealism, family life, forms of community and means of survival".[8]
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". Sanders argues that the book portrays "the act of reading" as "clearly liberatory".[9] Reading allows the rats to create a thriving human-like society once escaping from NIMH. Furthermore, reading serves as a gateway for the rats to discover that humans dislike them because they steal.[9] Sanders added that "scientific and philosophical treatises help the rats understand what their role is in the world and that if they are to be anything more than thieves, they must become a self-sustaining community".[9] In essence, Sanders finds that O'Brien promotes reading as an empowering tool which is an important lesson that children learn through reading this book.[9]
In a retrospective essay about the Newbery Medal-winning books from 1966 to 1975, children's author John Rowe Townsend wrote: "It seems to me that the fact that all the animals talk and behave intelligently from the beginning of the story detracts from the spectacular development of the laboratory rats... Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH is a pleasing book, but I find it mildly frustrating; it might have been something more than it is".[10]
In 2012 it was ranked number 33 on a list of the top 100 children's novels published by School Library Journal.[11]
Awards
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH won numerous awards including the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, Newbery Medal, and the runner-up National Book Award in 1972; the Mark Twain Award in 1973; the Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Readers' Choice Award and the William Allan White Children's Book Award in 1974.[3]
Impact on American views of scientific technology
In a 2019 essay, American studies scholar Arahshiel Rose Silver wrote that Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH "reflect the many scientific and technological anxieties present in 1960s American culture".[8] During this period, scientific advancements–especially in the field of genetics–increased fears about the pervasiveness of technology in everyday life.[8] A culture of fear began to grow surrounding unethical medical and scientific practices, which are heavily reflected in the book.[8] Silver argued that Conly's book lays out an example of technological development ending poorly, giving both children reading the book and their parents a lot to think about.[8]
