Analysis - Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

As I said in my anticipating post, I had read this book before but it had been a really long time and I did not remember too much. Although I was proud of myself for remembering "an intense scene in the kitchen"! Overall I really liked this story. One thing that I noticed this time that I do not remember effecting me when I was younger was the story of what happened at NIMH. Reading it now, it seemed to me that the lab experiments seemed like a very mature topic for a children's novel. Not that it was hard to understand but the subject matter seemed like a more advanced one. Something that I wondered while reading this book was is it possible to teach rats to be able to read at the level that the rats of NIMH learned? The story seemed to be making a subtle hit at the problems with knowledge and how it can be abused. It really put a negative light on science and experimenting.

In compared to the other mice/rats book we read, I definitely enjoyed this one more. It was much easier to read. I looked up both books on the AR website and discovered while they are about the same book level, Redwall is twice as many points as Mrs. Frisby. This makes sense because Redwall is much longer and dense than Mrs. Frisby. I think that this story flowed much better and was easier to follow.

I feel like I have asked more questions than answers in this post...
So to sum up in a way: Mrs. Frisby > Redwall; Technology gets a negative light; I seem to remember a lot more from my childhood reading than I realized :)

Notable Moment - Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

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?

Anticipating Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

 Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM is one of those books that I have heard about all my life and how fantastic it is. I have a vague memory of reading this book when I was a child. But I do not really remember a lot of it. The only part that I really remember is there was a scene in a kitchen that has some serious tension. But I may be getting that confused with another book. I read a lot of books like this one when I was younger.
I know that the book is another with animal protagonists like Redwall. I am curious to see how the two books differ. If I remember correctly, these animals have interactions with humans unlike the creatures of Redwall. I think this fantasy will be more like Harry Potter in the way that the "real world" and the "fantasy world" have no boundaries and interact seamlessly. It is one of those fantasies that the reader can imagine happening in their own backyard. I think I like these types of fantasies more.

Notable Moment - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

How does one choose one notable moment for this book? There is the World Cup, the Yule Ball, the three tasks, the other schools, S.P.E.W., the pensive and priori incantatem. But I think my favorite moment is when Harry goes to the prefect bathroom to try and solve the mystery of the golden egg. Harry has been slacking on figuring out the clue to what the second task is going to be. As a thank you for helping him with the first task, Cedric Diggory tells Harry to take a bath with his egg and use the prefect's bathroom. As skeptical as Harry is to listen to Cedric, he decides to try it anyways. The description of the bathroom is amazing. The tub is the size of a swimming pool and has all of these magical taps with different kinds of bubble bath. Now as fantastic and magical as that sounds, I think my favorite part is Moaning Myrtle.

The first time Moaning Myrtle is introduced to the series is in the second book. Myrtle was killed by the basilisk from the chamber fifty years earlier. Moaning Myrtle is a whiny, pathetic, young ghost who haunts the second floor girls restroom. She befriended Harry, Ron and Hermione when they spent a lot of time in her bathroom brewing Polyjuice Potion where they would not be disturbed. Myrtle is a very funny character. I love that she finds joy in bossing Harry around while he is trying to figure out the clue to the egg. While this is a very funny moment, it is also very crucial plot-wise as well. Harry discovers that he is going to have to figure out how to hold his breath for an hour underwater. Myrtle appears again during the second task. She finds Harry while he is searching for the merpeople village. 

Anticipating Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I have a lot of experience with Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling. The first time I read Harry Potter was in fourth grade. My mom order Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's  Stone from one of the Scholastic Book catalogues. I really did not want to read it because I thought it seemed like a "boy's book", but my mom started reading it out loud to me. Eventually I started reading it by myself. And my love for the story has snowballed every since. It was fun for me cause Harry was just a few years older than I was. My parents started reading them and then my sister and then my brother. My whole family loved them and devoured them. We were so obsessed that by the time the fifth installment came out, we had to buy two. At midnight of course. We also ended up with two copies of the seventh one.

I remember the day my dad came home from the store with the first Harry Potter movie (on VHS!) and we sat down as a family and watched it. We had already seen it in the movie theater and were so excited to see it again. Eventually, when we bought a DVD player we got a copy on DVD as well. We own all the movies and always make a big deal about going to see them in the theaters as a family.

I have probably read each book at least three times, some of them I may have read more. My mother is amazing at reading out loud, she does all the voices and has a way of really capturing her audience. And so this summer, at 20 years old, when I got really sick, I had her read the seventh book out loud to me because I was too sick to read myself. I actually ended up reading the fourth book again this summer and so it is very fresh in my mind. I am excited to discuss the book in class and see what aspects of the fantasy Rowling uses.

Analysis - The Magician's Nephew

One of the main things that The Chronicles of Narnia is know for is it's Christian themes. The Magician's Nephew tells the story of the creation of Narnia and it has parallels to the story of the Creation and the Garden of Eden in the Bible. Chapter 9, The Founding of Narnia, tells how a great Lion singing a song is walking through an empty wasteland and the world is coming alive from him as he walks. Grass, trees, rivers and animals all come to life from his song.

Similarly in the Bible, Genesis tells of how God commanded for light, water, vegetation, and living creatures. In Narnia, these all appeared in the same order as they did Genesis. Digory, Polly and the Cabby all had reactions that would be expected for such an awe-inspiring experience. But Uncle Andrew and the Witch were frightened of the Lion. The Witch, and all her evil, was so scared that she ran away. And Uncle Andrew, while he was scared and uncomfortable, was more concerned about getting the rings from Digory and going home.

After Narnia has been created, Aslan, the Lion, calls a council to discuss the evil that has already entered this new land. Because it was Digory who brought the Witch into Narnia, even by accident, Aslan sends him on a mission to get an apple from a special garden on a hill and bring it back. This garden is very similar to Genesis' tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. On the gate to the garden is written,
Come in by the gold gates or not at all,
Take of my fruit for others or forbear,
For those who steal of those who climb my wall
Shall find their heart's desire and find despair.

Similar to the warning on the gate, in the Bible, God warns Adam and Eve "but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die"(Genesis 2:17). Just like the serpent tempts Adam and Eve, the Witch comes to tempt Digory with the prospect of being able to heal his mother. Later, Aslan tells Digory that while the fruit would have indeed saved his mother, it would not have been the same happiness she would have now that Digory had obeyed Aslan and brought the apple back.

There are other moments of Christian parallel in the story. At the beginning, when Digory and Polly visit Charn, Digory wants to hit the little bell because the carving on the side told him that he would be driven mad by the curiosity. He ends up getting in a fight with Polly and waking the Witch who brought all the trouble to London and Narnia. This is a classic example of temptation that is presented throughout the entire Bible.

In the end, though, the Digory listened to Aslan and was able to save his mother and be able to go back to his life in the country that he had missed so much.

Notable Moment - The Magician's Nephew

Chapter 9 is the Founding of Narnia. On of my favorite parts of this chapter is when it is describing how the animals are coming into being.

"Can you imagine a stretch of grassy land bubbling like water in a pot? For that is really the best description of what was happening. In all directions it was swelling into humps. They were of very different sizes, some no bigger than mole-hills, some as big as wheelbarrows, two the size of cottages. And the humps moved and swelled till they burst, and the crumbled earth poured out of them, and from each hump there came out an animal."

Lewis then goes on to describe the different animals that came out of the earth. it was everything from dogs and frogs to deer, elephants and panthers. The imagery used in this chapter is amazing. I love how Aslan is creating this world with his voice. The Christian parallels in this chapter are very powerful. As a Christian, the mystery of how the world began is something that is constantly having to be defended to scientific and academic communities. I think that Lewis does a lovely interpretation here of how he imagines it would have been like to witness the beginning of the world.

One of the reasons that I love this part of the book is because of the picture it creates. My favorite is how the deer emerge. "The stags were the queerest to watch, for of course the antlers came up a long time before the rest of them, so at first Digory thought they were trees." The whole scene is just so peaceful and lovely. Exactly how I would think the beginning of the world would be.