The Rescuers

I didn't even know that the Disney movie was based on a book, but I happened across the series when I was weeding. The first thing I absolutely love about it is the voice of the characters. Miss Bianca, especially, is well drawn, and I get such a kick out of her naive arrogance. She's adorable. I loved Bernard too, and stolid Nils. So many of the ironic asides were laugh out loud funny.

What I didn't love about the book: the ending. I can't believe Miss Bianca and Bernard didn't get mouse married! I haven't read the rest of the series yet; maybe they do get back together, though the epilogue does not indicate that. I can understand why Disney changed the story since mice rescuing prisoners of possibly dubious character is not exactly the show more same as mice rescuing kidnapped little orphans. I thought it was interesting that the mice didn't seem to care what a prisoner had done or if he was really guilty. Weird.

All in all though, I loved it more than the recent animal fantasies I've read, like the Anatole series or the Basil series. Sharp's mice are so much more flawed and real and lovable. I'm definitely going to see if we have the rest of the series at my library. show less

Extraordinarily well written, but in a sense written as much for adults as children. The feminism is overt, but simultaneously feminine. The romance is so splendidly funny. This was the start of a series, and the sequel, Miss Bianca, is nearly as good.

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2022 - Still great!

I read this as a kid—actually, three or four in the series—and coming back to it as an adult, my opinion didn't really change much. It's a sweet and frothy little story, but only because of how it's told: it's quite "jolly hockey sticks," with a narrative voice that feels as pampered and at a remove as Miss Bianca herself. It's all a bit camp, making tiny, fussy details of the mice's world important, while at the same time downplaying the true danger. The stereotypical Big Bad Cat obstacle, when he shows up, speaks in velvety, George Sanders-esque tones, calling Miss Bianca "my dear little lady." It's that kind of book, and I remember it feeling that way even when I was eight years old.

All of this is slightly contrasted by Garth show more Williams' wonderfully textured drawings, which bring back the action and terror to the story—particularly with Mamelouk, the aforementioned Big Cat (who, in Williams' depiction, is little more than a giant mountain of fur with a face). Sharp has also chosen, oddly, to write about what is clearly a political prisoner who needs "rescuing"—but we never learn why, or which government is in charge of the Black Castle, or what relevance any of this has to the humans. It's just important—and we have to accept it—which feels more than a little underdeveloped and, again, removed. (I don't think it's any mistake that the sequel, Miss Bianca, focuses on a child that needs rescuing. Sharp clearly understood the weakness of that first book, and it's similarly no mistake that the second book forms most of the basis of the Disney film.)

However, I offer all of this up less as criticism than as simple analysis. The Rescuers was very pleasant to read and frequently delightful, and I would be happy to spend more time in the company of these characters. show less

A small team of intrepid mice goes to rescue a Norwegian poet from the remote and perilous Black Castle, home of a huge and vicious cat.
This is not at all the plot of the movie, having its own serendipitous charms despite the sexism. The illustrations are whimsical, and even in the limited Kindle version, quite the enhancement.

Miss Bianca is a white mouse of great beauty and supreme self-confidence, who, courtesy of her excellent young friend, the ambassador's son, resides luxuriously in a porcelain pagoda painted with violets, primroses, and lilies of the valley. Miss Bianca would seem to be a pampered creature, and not, you would suppose, the mouse to dispatch on an especially challenging and extraordinarily perilous mission.

However, it is precisely Miss Bianca that the Prisoners' Aid Society picks for the job of rescuing a Norwegian poet imprisoned in the legendarily dreadful Black Castle. Miss Bianca, after all, is a poet too, and in any case she is due to travel any day now to Norway. There Miss Bianca will be able to enlist one Nils, known to be the show more bravest mouse in the land, in a desperate and daring endeavor that will take them, along with their trusty companion Bernard, across turbulent seas and over the paws and under the maws of cats into one of the darkest places known to man or mouse. It will take everything they've got and a good deal more to escape with their own lives, not to mention the poet. show less

"There is no more wonderful moment in life than when a prison door opens."

It is not surprising this book remains still beloved 65 years after it was first published. Not only gentle and sweet but it is also sometimes funny, sometimes surprisingly wise and always wholesome and uplifting.

Let's not forget also that it's about mice, those universally favorite anthropomorphic creatures that use our old matchboxes for beds and wooden thread spools for tables. (Wonder what anthropomorphic mice use for furniture these days?)

Highly recommend as a read aloud with your little ones. I don't know about you, but I often need to read a good ol' nice book my own self.

A mouse-organized Prisoners Aid Society! A daring jailbreak from the depths of solitary confinement inside the grimmest, most fortified prison in the land! Prison activists: This is the book you should get for the young people in your lives! (Be aware that there seems to be another version that changes the story to neatly excise prison and solitary confinement. That's not the one that I'm raving about here)

Because the book was written in 1959, Miss Bianca falls into some gender stereotypes of what girls are seen as able to do. But she also has her own unique strengths, which prove to be integral to the rescue mission. You may want to have some dialogue about gender and ability with the young reader(s) in your life after you've both read show more the book. show less