Animal intelligence and post-apocalyptic survival give Robert C. O’Brien two very different routes into speculative fiction for younger readers. O’Brien wrote a small but distinctive group of children’s and speculative novels. Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH follows a widowed field mouse trying to save her sick son and discovering a community of laboratory-enhanced rats whose intelligence has transformed their way of life. The Silver Crown sends a girl across a threatening landscape after a mysterious crown appears on her birthday. Z for Zachariah, completed after O’Brien’s death from his notes, is narrated by a teenage girl who survives nuclear catastrophe in an isolated valley and then encounters another survivor. His prose is clear and suspenseful, with ethical questions emerging naturally from adventure. In discovery terms, the work connects with The books children’s classics, animal fantasy, post-apocalyptic YA and intelligent science fiction for younger readers. Read more Less
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