Tale of Despereaux

CRR: Tale of Despereaux

By:Kate Dicamillo

Summary

The Tale of Despereaux is about a mouse. But not just any mouse. This mouse was strange. He was very small for a mouse and he had huge ears. He was also born with his eyes open (which is weird for a mouse). And as he got older he realizes that he isn’t like the other mice in other ways too. He can read and he loves music. He doesn’t like to scurry either (which his brother thinks is strange). On the day that he realizes what he was hearing was music, was the same day that he fell in love with Princess Pea.

Another story that runs parallel in this book is that of Roscuro the rat. In this book, rats are the scum of the kingdom. They had been sentenced to death by the king (to find out why, you must read the book). All the rats in the kingdom had gone into hiding in the dungeon. This is where Roscuro lived. But he had a fascination with the light that came from above. Roscuro develops a grudge against Princess Pea and comes up with an evil plan to get revenge.

There is yet one more story that runs parallel to the other two. And this story is about a little girl named Miggery Sow. She was sold by her father, at the age of six, for a hen, a red table cloth and some cigarettes. After seeing the princess about a year later, she decides that she will one day be a princess. When the king outlaws soup (I know, its weird… but you have to read the book to find out why) one of the king’s men finds out that Miggery Sow is a slave. Miggery is then taken back to the castle to work as a servant girl.

Now all three characters are in the castle. All three characters end up in the dungeon with the Princess. Will Roscuro get his revenge? Or will Despereaux become a knight in shining armor and save the girl he loves? Just as the Author herself would say: “Reader, it is your destiny to find out.”

Critique

I would first like to say that this was a fantastic book. It kept me entertained the whole way through. The author would include vocabulary words and even talk to the reader. She would periodically take a break from the story and say something directly to the reader. As a teacher, I loved those parts. It gives the students something to discuss. As a reader of the book, I hated it. I wanted the story to continue. I didn’t care what she had to say, I wanted to keep reading the story! But overall, I enjoyed the book thoroughly.

I think that this would connect to the chapter in the connection across the curriculum section. I would consider this book to a historical fantasy book. It takes place in a day when there were kings and knights (I like to picture a castle like King Arthur’s). It is fantasy because the animals can talk to the humans. Even though there is not much fact in this book, the student can derive some relative truths about medieval times. Such as: there was no electricity, no motor vehicles, etc. They could also figure out that there was a class system: There were the nobles (the King, the Princess, etc) and there were the peasants (Miggery Sow, her father, etc.). Facts such as that could be pulled from this story.

So overall, this was an excellent book, and I would recommend it to just about everyone, teacher and student alike. It has a reading level of around 4^th grade, so anytime before that, it would have to be a read aloud story time.