One moment that I found important in this story was when Mrs. Frisby seeks the advice of the owl who lives at the edge of the forest. Mrs. Frisby's son Timothy is very sick with pneumonia and she needs to figure out a way to keep him alive but also protect her family from the farmer's plow in the garden. It is the owl who tells Mrs. Frisby to go and ask the rats who live in the rosebush for help. This chapter also has some major foreshadowing because the owl only tells Mrs. Frisby about the rats after he learns her name. This starts the reader questioning what Mrs. Frisby's potential role is in the story. Maybe she has a bigger part than both her and the reader initially anticipated.
I did not make this connection until I started writing this post, but in Redwall, Matthais also seeks the help of a wise owl. Is this a coincidence or is does this say something about mice in children's literature?
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