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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A very engaging children's novel (though adults will love it too) about a mouse whose read too many adventure stories. Despereaux is determined to be the Knight in Shining Armor when Princess Pea needs rescuing. A delightful and enthralling story.
It is often hard to describe when or how you fall in love with a book, but I knew I loved this book from the first page. The more I read it aloud to the class, the more I loved it and the more they loved it. After every reading was done, the class groaned in unison and asked if we could possibly read one more chapter. To have read this book is a privilege, but to share that experience with my favorite group of children is a true gift. I can't wait to read this to my own children!
This is a tale of a mouse called Despereux who falls in love with a princess and is exiled by his mousekind to live in the dungeon with rats. This interwoven tale addresses issues such as ignorance, offence, abuse, courage, love and forgiveness. Beautifully written it is a book I’d recommend.
What a beautiful interesting tale of a hero, a villan, a princess and a young girl who no one cared about. I love how there's a narrator who speaks the reader, who guides us through the story via 4 sides of the tale. Its captivating and thought provoking and I still love it
I'm writing this for Haley, my granddaughter, who says this book is really really really good. Despereaux is a little mouse with giant ears who is very brave. My friends will enjoy this book.
A sweet, "cute" story for youth, but slightly boring for an adult. Mostly predictable, and bizarrely illogical (a mouse in love with a human....)
Read-aloud to my ten year old. She says, "A daring adventure. Light is fighting dark. Dreams are being made. Happiness is wished for. A mouse who loves a princess. So much fun to read." (She was anxious to get to the Wii U because we're on Thanksgiving break or she might have given a little bit more comprehensive review.)
This is my second time reading The Tale of Despereaux to a child in my home, and it probably won't be the last. This book is the marriage of three characters stories. First, we have a tiny mouse with exceptionally large ears, who commits the crime of not being a timid scurrying mouse like the other mice. Second, there is a rat who is banished forever to the dark, but longs for the light. Then, there is a lonely, unloved servant girl, who has a simple, childish, impossible wish. Because of that wish, she sometimes chooses darkness over the light.
As DiCamillo flips back and forth between the storylines of the three main characters, a very dark and violent, and yet beautiful children's book emerges. A young girl is sold into slavery by her father. A rat accidentally causes a death and is banished to the darkness, where he creates a twisted plot for revenge that he hopes will bring light into his life. An unusual mouse is born into the light and loves the light, and yet is betrayed by his own family to be sent into the dark. In this dark, they expect him to be murdered and gruesomely eaten. Deaths occur. Abuse occurs. Revenge and betrayal are common themes in this book.
Yet, in the twisted darkness of this world there is light. As we see in the rat's story, "His rat soul longed inexplicably for it; he began to think that light was the only thing that gave light meaning, and he despaired that there was so little of it to be had."
The true ideas behind this book involve the light, how little light there is to be found in our world, and how the light and the dark war within our own hearts. Also, a really strong sub theme running through this book is how the light in our lives is twisted and afflicted by the darkness. This is perhaps not the only lesson in this powerful book, but it is the lesson that I have learned in this read through. So, today, I choose to be thankful for that light when I see it in others and to embrace the light and not the darkness. . . It is my hope that this is also the theme that my ten year old gleaned from the book as well.
This is my second time reading The Tale of Despereaux to a child in my home, and it probably won't be the last. This book is the marriage of three characters stories. First, we have a tiny mouse with exceptionally large ears, who commits the crime of not being a timid scurrying mouse like the other mice. Second, there is a rat who is banished forever to the dark, but longs for the light. Then, there is a lonely, unloved servant girl, who has a simple, childish, impossible wish. Because of that wish, she sometimes chooses darkness over the light.
As DiCamillo flips back and forth between the storylines of the three main characters, a very dark and violent, and yet beautiful children's book emerges. A young girl is sold into slavery by her father. A rat accidentally causes a death and is banished to the darkness, where he creates a twisted plot for revenge that he hopes will bring light into his life. An unusual mouse is born into the light and loves the light, and yet is betrayed by his own family to be sent into the dark. In this dark, they expect him to be murdered and gruesomely eaten. Deaths occur. Abuse occurs. Revenge and betrayal are common themes in this book.
Yet, in the twisted darkness of this world there is light. As we see in the rat's story, "His rat soul longed inexplicably for it; he began to think that light was the only thing that gave light meaning, and he despaired that there was so little of it to be had."
The true ideas behind this book involve the light, how little light there is to be found in our world, and how the light and the dark war within our own hearts. Also, a really strong sub theme running through this book is how the light in our lives is twisted and afflicted by the darkness. This is perhaps not the only lesson in this powerful book, but it is the lesson that I have learned in this read through. So, today, I choose to be thankful for that light when I see it in others and to embrace the light and not the darkness. . . It is my hope that this is also the theme that my ten year old gleaned from the book as well.
