The Rescuers by Margery Sharp, 1959.

This is the first book of The Rescuers Series.  Disney made a movie called The Rescuers based on this series, but the movie was very different from the book.  The movie involved a pair of mice who were members of a mouse version of the United Nations called The Rescue Aid Society who rescued a young orphan girl who was kidnapped for the purpose of recovering a treasure from a dangerous cave.  In the book, the prisoner the mice rescued was a poet who was being held captive in a castle.

The beginning of the first book of the series explains the purpose of the Prisoners’ Aid Society, an organization of mice that helps human prisoners:

“Everyone knows that the mice are the prisoners’ friends – sharing his dry bread crumbs even when they are not hungry, allowing themselves to be taught all manner of foolish tricks, such as no self-respecting mouse would otherwise contemplate, in order to cheer his lonely hours; what is less well known is how splendidly they are organized. Not a prison in any land but has its own national branch of a wonderful, world-wide system.”

However, the mice are daunted by their latest concern, a prisoner who is being held captive in the Black Castle, a Norwegian poet.  The Black Castle is a harsh prison, and because of the jailer’s cat, mice usually cannot reach the prisoners there.  However, the current chairwoman of the society believes that it may be possible to rescue one of the prisoners there.  She thinks that Miss Bianca is just the mouse for the job because she is the pet of an ambassador’s son and will soon be traveling to Norway with her owner.  The chairwoman sends Bernard, a pantry mouse, to Miss Bianca to recruit her for the mission.

Miss Bianca is frightened when Bernard explains the mission to her and faints.  However, it turns out that Miss Bianca is a poet, and so is the man who is being held prisoner.  Bernard uses her sympathy for a fellow poet and some flattery to inspire her to agree to help.

When Miss Bianca reaches Norway, she recruits some help from the mice in the cellar of the embassy.  In particular, a sailor mouse called Nils accompanies her to where the other mice from the Society are meeting.  There, Bernard joins them for the journey to the Black Castle.

When they reach the castle, Miss Bianca, Bernard, and Nils take up residence in an empty mouse hold in the head jailer’s quarters.  (There is a horrifying description of how the head jailer apparently pinned live butterflies to his walls to die. Ew!)  The jailer does have a horrible cat named Mamelouk, who is as cruel as his master.  At first, Miss Bianca isn’t afraid of the cat, having known a nice cat who didn’t eat mice when she was young.  After talking to Mamelouk and interacting with him, she comes to recognize his cruelty and real intentions toward her.  However, Mamelouk is an important source of information.  It is from Mamelouk that they learn that the jailers will be having a New Year’s Eve party soon and that many of them are likely to be lax in their duties.  This will be the best time for them to try to rescue the poet!

The mice do successfully rescue the poet, and Miss Bianca returns to her boy, who has been missing her. However, this is just the first of her adventures in this series!

Overall, I prefer the first Disney Rescuers movie to the book because the prison/castle seemed pretty dark for a children’s book, and I think the idea of rescuing a child is also more appropriate for a children’s book.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.