The Tale of Despereaux - Kate DiCamillo
Reader, in the spirit of honesty, I must utter a difficult and unsavory truth: Rats are not beautiful creatures. They are not even cute.
I first read Despereaux in 2003 when it was first published. Since then, it has won the Newbery, and was made into a movie, spawning lots of merchandise and based-on-the-movie picture books. Since Ridley got to see the movie version (which, of course, was quite different and not as good as the book) and read a picture book or two (based on the movie, so also not quite the same), I decided it was time for her to hear the real tale of Despereaux, the one that was not all action and acrobatics and instead more about hope and love and honor.
Despereaux is a tiny mouse who falls in love with a princess. The writing is wonderful, and DiCamillo often stops to speak to the reader about this or that, drawing out the poignancy in places and asking us to stretch our ability to hope for the best. It's a lovely, tragic, happy story, and I look forward to reading it again—maybe when Hania's old enough to appreciate it.
Fed to jonathan's brain | June 23, 2009
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