They are not like other rats. They work at night, in secret...Time is running out for Mrs Frisby. She must move her family of mice before the farmer destroys their home. But her youngest son, Timothy, is too ill to survive the move. Help comes in the unexpected form of a group of mysterious, super-intelligent rats. But the rats are in danger too, and little by little Mrs Frisby discovers their extraordinary past.

 

This book was recognised by the Newbery Award. The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

There are 256 pages in this book. This book was published 1994 by Penguin Books Ltd .

Robert C O'Brien was the pseudonym of Robert Leslie Conly. Born in New York City in 1922 he began to write freelance stories, poems and essays soon after leaving high school. He was married with four children and was an editor of the National Geographic Magazine in Washington DC until his death in 1973.