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The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - Kate DiCamillo
Edward said nothing. He said nothing because, of course, he could not speak.
Robyn and I read DiCamillo's previous book, The Tale of Despereaux, as a bedtime story a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. So when I saw this book at the store, it immediately grabbed my attention. The illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline, particularly the cover, are a little reminiscent of Chris Van Allsburg, with the attention to details but a sort of fuzzy feel to the whole thing.
Edward Tulane is a china rabbit who is dearly loved by Abilene. But as we learn early on, Edward is a bit of a jerk who thinks very highly of himself and doesn't care much about anyone else. Then he falls off a cruise ship into the ocean, and begins his miraculous journey, passing from person to person and learning what it means to love.
Despite the fact that Edward is in some sense "alive" in the book, he can't move or speak out loud, so just about everything that happens in the book is possible (though remarkable), with the added dimension of Edward's inner thoughts (and his conversation with some dolls in a store). It's a moving book, and quite sad in places. There were times where I couldn't stop at the end of a chapter because Robyn felt it was too sad to go to sleep at that point. But it's also a wonderful fable which I look forward to sharing with my kids when they're older.
Fed to jonathan's brain | June 10, 2006
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