First of all, I totally missed out on both the film and the book when I was a child, so I was totally amazed when I saw Don Bluths masterpiece about a year ago.
Now, reading the book, I was sucked into this world once again.
It is less dark than the film but still keeps the spirit and most of the things I liked about it, like our main character. Mrs Frisby is a single mother who does everything for her kids, a good role model and a kind of protagonists we seldom see in kids movies, or anywhere for that matter. I enjoyed how the reader grows and learns with her while we follow her journey.
I don't feel like anything was dumped down for younger audiences or made to be less serious. The stakes are always high and the threads real. A lot of time was spent on the backstory of NIHM, which felt appropriate for understanding it.
The situations and characters were believable all the time.
Even though I enjoyed other books which I rated lower more, I can see no reason not to give this books 5 stars.