Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread

Rating:
Summary: I wish I liked it... I do, I do!
Review: A better idea in its conception than its execution. I enjoy stories where animals speak, and this one began with great promise. The initial tale of the mouse Despereaux is good, and it leads nicely into the story of the rat Roscuro. Unfortunately, once the book hits the story of the servant girl Miggery Sow, it looses itself. The Miggery Sow plotline is rather horrendous in the face of the others. In it, a girl's mother dies, her father trades her to a man that beats her soundly day in and out, and as a result she's nearly deaf. Once she arrives at the castle she becomes fat and beaten even more by her fellow servants. This would be all well and good if it was done with any sympathy at all. It is not. The girl is stupid and scenes of her beatings are told with a disturbingly jovial tone about the, "clouts" about the ears. There is no sympathy for the working poor in this book. The only sympathetic lower class character, the jailor Gregor, is ceremoniously killed off without so much as a final scene. The cook is suddenly supposed to become a likable character when she serves soup to Despereaux, the author hoping the reader will forget that not 100 pages ago she was last seen beating a 12 year-old girl. The princess, who has grown up rich and beautiful, has no flaws. Her father is stupid, but not evil. In the end, this story has attempted to be about dreams and how they don't always come true. This is all well and good, but it feels patched together. It is almost as if the author didn't know where she was going with the plot as she wrote. For a much better story of a young mouse learning about courage, see "Redwall" by Brian Jacques or Avi's "Poppy". All this isn't to say I don't wish I loved it more. I do! But somehow I just couldn't love it as everyone else did.

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Summary: Dear Reader, young and old!
Review: Dear Reader, The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread is a 2004 Newberry Medal Book winner and that was what caught my eye in choosing this book. It is fun and easy to read, and would be especially fun to read with a child 6-10 years old. Children love being read to and even if they are wonderful readers it is good to share a book by reading to them.

Reader, there are some subjects that come up that may need explaining to a younger child, such as how the mother mouse could be so mean to abandon her deformed baby mouse. The father mouse sends the baby mouse off to the dungeon rather than being supportive of it. The young maid girl, Miggery Sow, is abandoned and clouted by her parents and uncle. Clouted, reader, means she was struck repeatedly in the ear area causing her to be deaf. It seemed a little much for young children to have to endure in the name of fun; I think reading should be fun to pleasant for all. So, dear reader, keep this in mind while reading this book and use it as a teachable moment to confirm your love and concern for you child.

I liked the writer's dear reader narrative. As a new and
unusual word was introduced the author questioned the reader on it and then often would share the meaning. Such as saying, "Reader, you do not have to go to the dictionary; I will tell you the meaning of perfidy. It is the state of being disloyal." I enjoyed this personal aspect of the book.

Reader, let's go back to the plot. The characters are outcasts that have dreams and goals just like everyone else. The book covers this in four books within a book. The last book brings it all together and everyone lives happily ever after. This does not mean marrying the princess, even in this strange world but reader; it means contentment, acceptance and forgiveness. Aren't these more important anyway dear readers?

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding, stylish, and romantic
Review: I just finished reading this one out loud to my daughter (5 years old) and it was a HUGE hit, even though I think it was really meant for older kids who can read it on their own. It is the story of a lonely little mouse, rejected by his family, who falls in love with the young Princess who rules the castles in which he lives.

Here are some reasons we really liked the book:

1) DiCamillo is a true romantic; Despereaux the mouse loves Pea the Princess with a love that is overwhelming and courtly (like a medieval knight), a love that makes him want to be a better person. At the same time, the author is not afraid to toss in some real Adventure and even Peril - the mouse must brave the dungeon, its murderous clan of rats, and a sad but frightening orphan girl named Miggery Sow who means to kidnap the princess and take her place. Scary enough to be exciting but not scary enough for nightmares.

2) Although DiCamillo's writing style is highly sophisticated, she stops along the way to explain the unusual and interesting words she uses ("perfidy," for one), so the book is comprehensible even to kids too young to read it themselves.

3) The illustrations are charming and many, to keep younger listeners/readers entertained. The chapters are also short enough to make good bed-time stories by themselves.

One caution though - although my 9-year-old son would have been able to tackle this on his own, the heavy romantic nature of the story (even though it's between a mouse and a girl) put him off. It's probably a much more appealing book to girls than boys. But even for some boys, the adventure will make it worth the while.

Rating:
Summary: Soup makes everything wonderful
Review: Kate DiCamillo has written a charming book about Despereaux, a mouse that is a disappointment even to his mother. The story, comprised of four books, is about Despereaux and his un-mousely ways. He is small, has big ears, and loves a human Princess. Because of his odd ways, he is banned to the dungeon where the rats like to eat mice. Also in the book is Miggery Sow, a girl who is dim witted and has cauliflower ears. Miggery wants to be a princess....so badly in fact, that she plots against Princess Pea.

In the end all works out and everyone lives happily ever after.

If you're an adult then read this book. You'll want to find a child to read it to when you're finished.

Rating:
Summary: A warning to parents of younger children
Review: My 6-year-old son and I love the complexity of the plot and the mouse and rat characters. But I want to issue a word of warning to parents of younger children. The abandonment and beating of the 6-year-old girl is brutal, and my son was quite upset by it. I'm not saying we should shield our children from all that is bad in the world, but the descriptions are so vivid, and the girl's world so bleak, that I was stunned as I read it aloud. My son was near tears. He had never known that adults exist who treat children so brutally, and I'm not sure I wanted him to know that at the tender age of 6. I am a writer myself, and I strongly believe in reality in literature, but we will continue reading the book only if he is sure he wants us to. I suggest reading these parts yourself before deciding to read this to your child.

Rating:
Summary: awful, reader, just plain awful
Review: Please do not read this book, reader!!! Reader, I had just finished reading Because of Winn-Dixie, and I found it to be a wonderful book and story. But, reader, Tale of Despereaux did not come anywhere close to what I expected a good, or worthy of reading children's book, should be. I also, reader, feel that anyone who has to tell a child what is going on without letting them think for themselves or create their own meanings should not bebale to get their books published. I have always felt the point of getting children to read is to, get them to read! Then the stories and meanings can be discussed later. Children always bring something new the table, and this book ruins a childs creative and imaginative mind.

Rating:
Summary: A Story About Adventure and Love
Review: The Tale of Despereaux first tells you about a mouse who was born with his eyes open. His mother named him Despereaux, which means disappointment. She named him Despereaux because he was the only mouse in his litter to survive birth. Despereaux is different from other mice; for instance he likes to read.
Then you hear about Chairoscuro, a rat who, unusually, loves light. Last you hear about Miggery Sow, a young girl whose father sold her for a red tablecloth, a hen, and a hand full of cigarettes. All of those three characters are related to the Princess Pea. Despereaux is in love with her, Chairoscuro wants revenge on her, and Miggery wants to be her, and when Mig and Cairoscuro conspire to get what they both want, Despereaux must save her.
I liked this book because I like when everything is connected. In this case it would be the characters. Although I liked the book I did not think it was exciting.

Rating:
Summary: A perfectly enchanting, inspirational story
Review: This is a wonderful, moving, perfectly enchanting novel for children of all ages, and it more than lives up to the spirit of the John Newberry Medal it received as the year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children." I had read a number of good things about The Tale of Despereaux, and the book actually exceeded my high expectations. Not only does Kate DiCamillo give us a moving, gripping story with wonderful characters; she teaches us a number of important lessons about life in the process. A similar set of circumstances leads several individuals down completely different yet converging roads in life, and this serves to illustrate the important fact that all of our actions and decisions have consequences for ourselves as well those around us. At the same time, DiCamillo reinforces the importance of love, forgiveness, imagination, determination, etc., in each of our lives.

Despereaux could be called the mouse that lived; the only survivor of his mother's last litter, he was born (in a castle) with large ears and with his eyes open; thus, from the very start, he was made fun of and constantly told there was something wrong with him. Truly, he was no ordinary mouse; light fascinated him, music stirred his soul, and a fairy tale he read (rather than gnaw on the pages) inspired his dreams. Drawn by the sound of music one day, he disregards the established rules of mice by not only approaching the king and his little girl but actually speaking to them. Despereaux falls madly in love with the princess, but his actions lead the mice council to send him to the dungeon - to the rats. These dungeon rats are mean and nasty, and they eat any mouse that is sent down to their domain. One, however, is not content to be a rat; Roscuro yearns to escape the darkness and dwell in the light - ridiculed by his rat buddies for such silly dreams, he nevertheless makes his way up and into the castle. Unfortunately, his appearance sets in motion a tragedy that hangs heavily over the rest of the story - embittered by the experience, Roscuro returns to the dungeon and begins making plans for revenge. Then you have Miggery Sow, the most tragic character of all. At six years old, her mother died, and her father soon sold her for a hen, a red tablecloth, and some cigarettes. Her "uncle" clouts her ears constantly for her mistakes, leaving her with cauliflower ears that she can barely hear out of. No one has ever cared about her or her desires. All three of these fascinating characters are destined to come together in the final section of this remarkable little novel.

It's an inspiring story indeed, and Despereaux is a hero in every sense of the word. Not only must he survive his banishment to the rat-infested dungeon, he must -under almost impossible circumstances - try to rescue the princess he loves so dearly. Love, honor, determination, and heroism (and soup) give him strength, but even still he is only a little two-ounce mouse. There are a number of lessons in Despereaux's tale, not the least of which is the idea that even the smallest of individuals can be heroic and change people's lives. Roscuro represents the pain and misery that inevitably comes from reacting to disappointment in a negative fashion, while poor Miggery Sow is a most telling victim of physical and emotional abuse. Yet forgiveness is always possible, and that is a striking element of this plot. The whole book is simply enchanting and inspirational. DiCamillo often steps outside of the narrative to address the reader directly, offering words of encouragement or warning of unpleasant things ahead, and I thought this added a great deal of charm to an already charming book. This is a story you will delight in reading again and again.