Remarkable Rodents: Five SFF Stories Featuring Rats and Mice

Despite being the titular character, little lab mouse Algernon doesn’t really get all that much page time in Flowers for Algernon, but his moments are undeniably impactful. Main character Charlie Gordon is chosen to be the first human test subject for an experimental surgery which seeks to increase intelligence. The surgery has already been successfully performed on Algernon, who Charlie initially dislikes for being smarter than him.

But it isn’t long before Charlie—who is now also becoming more intelligent—comes to see himself reflected in Algernon, and he develops a fondness for the tiny animal. While the scientists treat Algernon as nothing more than a living experiment, Charlie views him as so much more than that, and gives him a better life as soon as he’s able to.

Flowers for Algernon has a lot to say about how intelligence—high, low, and medium—functions and is treated in society, but the story’s message is really driven home by the heart-rending emotional connection the reader (or, at least, this reader) develops with both Charlie and Algernon.

The mouse elements of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy fall into spoiler territory, so if you haven’t read the book (nor listened to the radio show nor watched the movie), don’t read the paragraph below. All you need to know is that Arthur Dent is rescued from Earth right before the entire planet is destroyed and from there he’s forced to go on a comically absurd journey through space. There are mice present at certain points in the story, and they’re hilarious.

Spoiler section: Arthur understandably isn’t the biggest fan of mice Frankie and Benjy—who are actually members of an intelligent pan-dimensional alien race—on account of them wanting to dice up his brain to extract from it the Ultimate Question (the answer to which is, famously, 42). That the mice had Earth built and then pretended to be lowly lab animals—all while actually sneakily experimenting on humans themselves—for the sole purpose of figuring out this question is comedy gold. But I do think it’s a shame that their love of cheese was merely a front to dupe humanity. No more cheeses for these meeces, I guess.

I would die for Mr Jingles. And I’m pretty sure every character in The Green Mile would too—that is, aside from cruel guard Percy Wetmore, who I hate just as strongly as I love the mouse. The story takes place on the death row block in Cold Mountain Penitentiary, with Mr Jingles being the pet—or maybe “friend” would be a more appropriate description—of prisoner Eduard “Del” Delacroix.

Although adored most of all by Del, the majority of people who know Mr Jingles have real affection for him—including Paul Edgecombe, the story’s narrator and block supervisor, and prisoner John Coffey, who uses his extraordinary gift to help the little mouse at a particularly crucial moment. And how could they not love him? He sleeps in a cotton-lined cigar box, loves to eat pink peppermint candies, and is smart enough to do little tricks.

Perhaps all of the characters are merely anthropomorphizing Mr Jingles, but maybe he’s actually just that special. With the supernaturally talented John Coffey around, the idea that Mr Jingles might be a cut above other mice doesn’t seem strange at all.

Tress lives a simple life on a little island in the middle of an emerald green sea of spores. When her best friend, Charlie, is kidnapped by the wicked Sorceress, whose lair is in the deadly Midnight Sea, Tress throws herself head first into danger (and adventure!) in an attempt to rescue him.

Tress may not have the same developed skill-set as those used to sailing the spore seas, but she more than makes up for that with her can-do attitude and endearing personality. Plus, no matter what challenges she encounters, she always has at least one friend in her corner (or, rather, on her shoulder): a talking rat called Huck.

Even in this whimsical fantasy world where the seas aren’t made of water, talking rats are not common, but when Tress first meets Huck she’s not horrified by him, nor does she start plotting ways to exploit him. Instead, she treats him with the kindness and respect that all animals deserve and quickly makes her first real friend away from the safety of home.