Summary: Kate DiCamillo’s Newbery-winning book tells the reader a story about a young mouse Despereaux Tilling. Mice like Despereaux are supposed to be scared of humans, but Despereaux falls in love with light and music and a human princess named Pea. He commits the ultimate mouse faux pas when he speaks to Pea. He is shunned by the rest of the mice and sent to the damp, dark dungeon with the rats. While there, he is saved by Gergory, the jailer. Before he escapes, he overhears a conversation between a rat named Roscuro and a serving girl named Miggery Sow. Roscuro plans to use Miggery to help him exact his revenge on humans by kidnapping Princess Pea. Despereaux realizes it’s up to him to become an unlikely hero and save the day.Citation: DiCamillo, K., & Ering, T. B. (2003). The tale of Despereaux. Cambridge, Mass.: Candlewick Press.
Impression: I was sucked into this book from the very beginning. It has the feeling of an old-fashioned fairy tale, which is enhanced by the occasional illustrations from Timothy Basil Ering. DiCamillo’s language is formal and elegant and weighty, without using an advanced vocabulary with too many words that children won’t know. Sometimes DiCamillo’s omniscient narrator address the reader directly and asks questions, which will lend well to reading out loud and interacting with kids.
The characterization is another one of the book’s strongest elements. It’s easy for the reader to sympathize with the humans, mice, and rats in the story. I was rooting for poor, sweet Despearaux from the moment when his mother named him Despereaux “for all the sadness, for the many despairs in this place” (p. 3). There are and there are even moments when you feel for the villainous rat Roscuro. In the dedication for the book DiCamillo says the book is for “Luke, who asked for the story of an unlikely hero.” DiCamillo has definitely created that hero I in Despereaux, I think the underdog aspects of the story will really appeal to kids.
Review:
Horn Book:
Despereaux Tilling is not like the other mice in the castle. He's smaller than average, with larger than average ears. He'd rather read books than eat them. And he's in love with a human being--Princess Pea. Because he dares to consort with humans, the Mouse Council votes to send him to the dungeon. Book the First ends with Despereaux befriending a jailer who resides there. Books two and three introduce Roscuro, a rat with a vendetta against Princess Pea, and Miggery Sow, a young castle servant who longs to become a princess. Despereaux disappears from the story for too long during this lengthy middle section, but all the characters unite in the final book when Roscuro and Miggery kidnap Princess Pea at knifepoint and Despereaux, armed with a needle and a spool of thread, makes a daring rescue. Framing the book with the conventions of a Victorian novel ("Reader, do you believe that there is such a thing as happily ever after?"), DiCamillo tells an engaging tale. The novel also makes good use of metaphor, with the major characters evoked in images of light and illumination; Ering's black-and-white illustrations also emphasize the interplay of light and shadow. The metaphor becomes heavy-handed only in the author's brief, self-serving coda. Many readers will be enchanted by this story of mice and princesses, brave deeds, hearts "shaded with dark and dappled with light," and forgiveness.
Sieruta, P. D. (2003). [Review of the book The Tale of Despereaux, by K. DiCamillo]. Horn Book Magazine, 79(5), 609-610. Retrieved from http://www.hbook.com/
Uses in a library: The Tale of Despereaux would be a great choice for a book club for elementary students. It would lead to a great discussion about bravery, friendship, and good versus evil. It would also be a great read aloud for a library or a classroom.
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