- Hardcover: 267 pages
- Publisher: Walker Books Ltd; Library Binding edition (17 May 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0763617229
- ISBN-13: 978-0763617226
- Product Dimensions: 16.3 x 2.3 x 21.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 602,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Tale of Despereaux
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
DiCamillo’s 2004 Newbery Medal-winning fairy tale, wittily subtitled ‘the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread’, is a huge change of direction for this successful American children’s author. Instead of another tale of real life, as seen in Because of Winn-Dixie and The Tiger Rising, DiCamillo brings her same style of delicate, literary simplicity to bear on a young fantasy that will be equally enduring and that is already equally lauded.
An unnamed narrator tells the story of a mouse called Despereaux Tilling. He is a special mouse but few believe it at his time of birth. The sickly sole survivor of a large litter, Despereaux has large ears, a small stature and his eyes open way too soon. It’s not natural! He can also read and hear sounds that no one else can hear--two very dangerous talents for a castle mouse like him. He is expected to die quickly--but confounds everyone when he fails to do so.
The novel is split into four parts, each ‘book’ introducing different characters, and then intertwining them all together in a story that, though not told at breakneck speed, is quirky and unforgettable. After Despereaux’s sad story, in which he falls deeply in love with the human Princess Pea and is greatly punished for his crime, we also meet Roscuro--a conniving rat whose love of light and soup get him in deep trouble too. And then there’s Miggery Sow, a dim-witted peasant girl sold by her father for a red tablecloth, a hen and some cigarettes. Despite her hard life she has a wonderful dream to become a princess.
The writing is carefully crafted and the themes that are tackled are reassuringly familiar. Featuring Timothy Basil Ering’s stunning illustrations, The Tale of Despereaux is an old-fashioned adventure that is quite timeless. (Age 8 and over) --John McLay --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Description
WINNER OF THE NEWBERY MEDAL!
Kate DiCamillo introduces a hero for all time!
Welcome to the story of Despereaux Tilling, a mouse who is in love with music, stories, and a princess named Pea. It is also the story of a rat called Roscuro, who lives in the darkness and covets a world filled with light. And it is the story of Miggery Sow, a slow-witted serving girl who harbors a simple, impossible wish. These three characters are about to embark on a journey that will lead them down into a horrible dungeon, up into a glittering castle, and, ultimately, into each other's lives. And what happens then? As Kate DiCamillo would say: Reader, it is your destiny to find out.
From the master storyteller who brought us BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE comes another classic, a fairy tale full of quirky, unforgettable characters, featuring twenty-four stunning black-and-white illustrations by Timothy Basil Ering, in an elegant design that pays tribute to the best in classic children's books and bookmaking traditions.
The beloved author of BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE enlightens us with a tale of adventure, despair, love, and soup.
Inside This Book
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A delightful book, lovingly written, with deceptively subtle illustrations by Timothy Ering that reveal surprising detail the harder one looks. A tale of a weird little mouse, a fairy-tale princess, a rather-not-be rat and a deaf serving girl whose paths cross in a web of love, bravery, intrigue and perfidy.
This is a gorgeous book for kids, aimed specifically at them with its large print, basic vocabulary, short chapters and direct contact with the reader. Nevertheless, it manages to captivate the older audience as well, making it a book that an adult enjoys reading to kids (and alone, if truth were told!).
Four 'books' are joined together by a red thread, so the story flows well, the believable characters have substance, and there is enough cliff-hanging drama to keep the smallest child pestering one for the next session.
Forget that stuff about it being 'too horrible' - kids love being frightened just a little.
I urge every parent to buy this for their children.*****
This is a gorgeous book for kids, aimed specifically at them with its large print, basic vocabulary, short chapters and direct contact with the reader. Nevertheless, it manages to captivate the older audience as well, making it a book that an adult enjoys reading to kids (and alone, if truth were told!).
Four 'books' are joined together by a red thread, so the story flows well, the believable characters have substance, and there is enough cliff-hanging drama to keep the smallest child pestering one for the next session.
Forget that stuff about it being 'too horrible' - kids love being frightened just a little.
I urge every parent to buy this for their children.*****
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This books is amongst my top 5 children's books ever! Working in a library I get to see an awful lot of books but this one stands out from the rest. If you have a child between the ages of 2 and 12 this is perfect. It's a "lying down" book - perfect for cold nights, tucked up in bed and being read aloud.
Magical, humourous with wonderful illustrations - a very special book.
PLEASE buy it...or even better borrow it from your local library!
Magical, humourous with wonderful illustrations - a very special book.
PLEASE buy it...or even better borrow it from your local library!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The tale of despereaux
This is a great intertwined tale with not just the story of despereaux, but megg and rusico the rat. I did a book review on it and I thorouhgly enjoyed it! Read more
Published 23 months ago
A Mousetastic story
The Tale of Despereaux is an amazing book by Kate Di Camillo an author i had not heard of before reading this book. Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2010 by S. OLIVER
A preachy tale in which not enough happens
My daughter couldn't be bothered to finish this, so I thought I'd read it. I can see why she got fed up. Read more
Published on 15 Aug 2009 by Annabel Gaskell
A lovely story!
This story is about a little mouse who falls in love with a princess and becomes a knight. He tries to save the princess but bad things happen on the way. Read more
Published on 23 Jun 2009 by Brentside Book Club
The Tale of Despereaux Special Edition: Being the Story of a Mouse, a...
My 9 year old niece loved this book and in her own words "it was the best present ever! and she cannot wait to read it again".
Published on 4 Feb 2009 by Auntie Helen
The Tale of Despereaux
I do not know how I came across this book, perhaps it was from a flyer in my newspaper.
It is a wonderful book for reading out aloud to children. Read more
It is a wonderful book for reading out aloud to children. Read more
Published on 16 Jan 2009 by Mrs Peter Pan
how wonderful
This is a delightfully inspirational tale of love and betrayal, I absolutely adored reading it several years ago to my children, and recently just for myself. Read more
Published on 25 Nov 2008 by Dm Wermerling
You are way wrong,Jasper Wong!
You may think that this book is childish, but i for one enjoyed it, and i know that many others reviewers did too. Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2007 by lindabookworm
READ IT! IT'S COOL!
My daughter (8) read this and loved it. Here is her review. "This is an absolutly amazing and fab book and you will be glued right from the first page because you never know what... Read more
Published on 20 May 2006 by Mrs. P. M. Phillips
Well this book is...
This book is slightly confusing at first, but as the story continues, the three different tales within the book draw together for the grand finale of Despereaux. Read more
Published on 7 Jan 2006 by "berlinkitkat"
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