by Robert C. O’Brien
Mrs. Frisby’s youngest son Timothy is ill, too ill to leave their cinderblock mouse house. Unfortunately, the house is in the middle of a field that the farmer is going to plow in less than a week, which will destroy the house—and anyone in it. Can Mrs. Frisby find anyone able and willing to help her save her son?
I loved this book as a kid, and I still love it. Mrs. Frisby is brave and bold in her desperation to save her son, and in the process, she learns secrets about her dead husband, her children, and the secretive rats who live at the edge of the farm. The story is engaging, the characters are vivid, and the ending is gripping, heartbreaking, and hopeful.