The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering

from goodreads

4 stars

So I can probably already hear what you are saying. "Hey where the heck are the picture books?" I promise next week I will be back with the picture books. But this book did have pictures throughout and it is a great one to read out loud, so to be fair, this is kind of like a picture book.

At the tail end of summer it was reading crazy here. I got through so many books. I want to post about the books I read before they get too far away from my memory. I do write down some of my thoughts but when I go to write my posts the book I write my thoughts in always seems to be missing. Seriously, I have elves in my house.

So next Tuesday I promise I will get back to the picture books.

Synopsis

Since his birth there has been something odd about Despereaux. When he falls in love with a human princess named Pea, the rest of the mice feel they must deal with him. It is truly a tale of love, kindness and being accepting of others.

My Thoughts

This has been on my list for quite awhile and I am so glad that I picked it up. It was on the feature wall in our library and I thought, why not. I will be reading this to my girls when they get a little older.

I loved the fantastical world that DiCamillo created. It's like it could be real life but there were some silly parts that made it seem other worldly. Such as, humans not thinking it strange that mice and rats could talk and that they knew the animals could understand them when they talked to them.

I loved the whole conflict of trying to be the same as everyone else, but then staying true to who you are. Despereaux, loves to read the books instead of nibble them. He loves staring at the light through the window instead of quickly running into the mouse hole. He finds love in unlikely places. All this causes conflict with the other mice, as they don't know how to deal with his oddities. This is a great story to introduce the concept of acceptance of those who do and see things differently.

The same for the rat Roscuro. He lives in the dungeon. As a rat he is not supposed to like light, and is always supposed to be mean to those who are thrown into the dungeon. Well one day he sees light, and it changes him.

It was interesting to see how being different affected Despereaux and Roscuro differently.

This book also demonstrates human cruelty in away that doesn't hide it but presents it in a kid friendly way. The character Miggery Sow makes me want to scoop her in my arms and love her.

I love how the author uses big words, stops the story and then either asks you to go look it up in the dictionary or explains it herself. Very cool. It's learning but in a fun and inviting way.

This was a fun book, a light book, a book that will make kids and adults think. This would be a great book to read out loud together. I think if you read it out loud it would be good for ages eight and up. If you were going to have your child read it by themselves I would suggest ages ten and up.