Despereaux

Title: Despereaux
Author: Kate DiCamillo
ISBN: 8427932588
Reading Level: Ages 9-12

We love love love Despereaux.  My 3rd grader had a slow start but once he got into the story, it was a race to the finish.  This is the first real novel he's read and his enthusiasm to tell me what just happened in each chapter was tremendous.

Of course my son was motivated to read the book because of the movie trailer:

Here's the Amazon review:

Kate DiCamillo, author of the Newbery Honor book Because of Winn-Dixie, spins a tidy tale of mice and men where she explores the "powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous" nature of love, hope, and forgiveness. Her old-fashioned, somewhat dark story, narrated "Dear Reader"-style, begins "within the walls of a castle, with the birth of a mouse." Despereaux Tilling, the new baby mouse, is different from all other mice. Sadly, the romantic, unmouselike spirit that leads the unusually tiny, large-eared mouse to the foot of the human king and the beautiful Princess Pea ultimately causes him to be banished by his own father to the foul, rat-filled dungeon.

The first book of four tells Despereaux's sad story, where he falls deeply in love with Princess Pea and meets his cruel fate. The second book introduces another creature who differs from his peers--Chiaroscuro, a rat who instead of loving the darkness of his home in the dungeon, loves the light so much he ends up in the castle& in the queen's soup. The third book describes young Miggery Sow, a girl who has been "clouted" so many times that she has cauliflower ears. Still, all the slow-witted, hard-of-hearing Mig dreams of is wearing the crown of Princess Pea. The fourth book returns to the dungeon-bound Despereaux and connects the lives of mouse, rat, girl, and princess in a dramatic denouement.

Children whose hopes and dreams burn secretly within their hearts will relate to this cast of outsiders who desire what is said to be out of their reach and dare to break "never-to-be-broken rules of conduct." Timothy Basil Ering's pencil illustrations are stunning, reflecting DiCamillo's extensive light and darkness imagery as well as the sweet, fragile nature of the tiny mouse hero who lives happily ever after. (Ages 9 and older) --Karin Snelson   --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Comments

[LeShelly]

If you are in not good state and have no cash to go out from that point, you would have to take the loan. Just because it should aid you emphatically. I take short term loan every single year and feel myself good just because of that.

[מכון שמיעה]

This book returns to jail and forced despereaux connects the lives of mouse, rat, girl and the princess in a dramatic climax.