The Tale of Despereaux

The Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo

Having read and loooooooooooooved The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, when I saw Desperaux as I was reshelving books at my son's school, I had to borrow it.

One of the first things that caught my eye was the "about the author" note at the front of the book.

Of "The Tale of Despereaux," Kate says, "My best friend's son asked me if I would write a story for him. "It's about an unlikely  hero," he said, "one with exceptionally large ears." "What happens to this hero?" I asked. "I don't know," he said. "That's why I want you to write the story, so we can find out."

Seriously, how cool to have a story written about a hero with exceptionally large ears because you want to find out what happens.

Despereaux is a mouse with exceptionally large ears and exceptionally non-mousy behaviour. Having fallen in love with the human princess and broken several mouse rules, he is banished to the dungeon where the rats live. What follows is the tale of how he escapes and how he saves the princess as well.

DiCamillo is a fantastic children's writer. While I think Edward is better than Despereaux, I can see me buying a copy of this and others she had written. Her books have that wonderful magical quality needed to shine in the world of children's fiction. It will be read aloud frequently in this house!

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

I discovered this in a box of books I had to cover for my son's school. As I have previously mentioned, my son is attending a school that is in it's first year this year, which means a lot of covering to be done! As a former teacher librarian, I had to offer my services and am lucky that the librarian is happy for me to keep a few to read.

From the blurb:

Once, in a house on Egypt Street, ther lived a china rabbit named Eduward Tulane. The rabbit was very pleased with himself, and for good reaseon: he was owned by a girl named Abilene, who treated him with the utmost care and adored him completely.
 And then, one day, he was lost.

Katherine Paterson from Publishers Weekly (and I am assuming it's the Katherine Paterson who wrote such classics as Bridge to Terabithia),summed it up perfectly for me when she said "Why should I care what happens to an arrogant, overdressed china rabbit? But I did care, desperately, and I think I can safely predict you will, too."

Edward Tulane is a beautiful book. I read it in one sitting because I had to know what happened. As Edward gets tossed from person to person, he slowly learns to love and to realise it's not what you look like that matters, but what is inside. I'm going to have to buy my own copy as I see it becoming a firm read aloud favourite not only for my kids, but kids in my classroom. (if I ever manage to get back into teaching!)