The Tale of Despereaux is about a little mouse who lives in a castle with his family and a community of other mice, a rat who lives in the castle's dungeons, and a servant girl named Miggery Sow.
Despereaux is not like the other mice. He is extremely small with huge ears. He doesn't act like the other mice. He falls in love with the princess and is sentenced to the dungeon to be killed by the rats.
Roscuro is a rat living in the dark dungeons. He wants revenge on the Princess Pea for how she looked at him. Roscuro Makes a plan with Mig to get the princess to come down to the dungeon. Despereaux heres the plan and its up to him to save the Princess Pea.

This wasn't my favorite book. I did not like how the aurthor would stop in the middle of the story and talk to the reader. This book had alot of dying and talk about death.

I wouldn't use this book in my classroom. There was name calling in the book, which kids would probably start calling each other. There was alot of talk about death and a girl being hit in the head by her master. I wouldn't want my class reading these things.

This children's novel is a good example of fantasy becasue the author personifies the Despereaux, a mouse, his mouse family, and the rats to have human like characteristics and motives. In the tale Despereaux is born as a different sort of mouse who doesn't fit in. After talking to the Princess, a human, Despereaux falls in love with her, but is excommunicated and sent to the Dungeon where the rats live. Desperaux escapes, but learns of a plot by a rat to harm Princess Pea. Through bravery and a great deal of wit Despereaux saves the day and learns a great deal about himself in the process. ( )

Despereaux was born an unusual mouse among the colony of mice, for he did things that were considered abnormal by his family and when he fell in love with the Princess Pea of the kingdom, he broke every rule made for mice and was sentenced to go into the dungeon with the rats and never come back. What happened to Despereaux? Read this classic tale of how rediculous and powerful emotions are and how different life can be depending on the different experiences you had. ( )

Kate DiCamillo is one of the most consistently excellent writers around. Each book is so different but they are all wonderful. This tale of a small mouse on a quest to same a princess from the evil rats was just wonderful. Her unique way of presenting this story and talking to the reader really worked. This would be a great read aloud and would lead to some great discussions. ( )

Fairy tales generally follow a formulaic plot. born of mundane, humble or destitute beginnings, heroes and heroines dream big, face the fire and, not without losing a limb, literally or metaphorically, they save the day, often bringing home a lesson.

What we forget, after much Disnifying, is that our beloved stories from childhood did not have squeaky clean beginnings. The first time I heard a telling of the original Little Mermaid, I almost cried (though my grandmother will tell you that, at seven, I cried at the Disney version as well). It’s gruesome and sad and a little cruel.

Like many of the Grimm stories, Kate DiCamillo’s Tale of Despereaux is a little challenging to read at times due to graphic descriptions, mentions of child abuse or other sad scenes. This, of course, detracts little from the actual plot or message but it is something I found myself wondering and eventually reconciling with the above intro reference to other fairy tales.

The tale, as mentioned above, has all of the classic themes of tried and true children’s stories. The outcast, the ugly duckling, the weak link, Despereaux is smaller than a mouse should be with ears twice his size. He is expected to die as many of his mother’s children have. He is fearless of most things that send mice scurrying, loves to read, you know, the usual iconoclast quirks. He also has a slightly worrisome attachment to human sentimentalities and eventually finds himself head over heels in love with the princess of the castle in which the mice reside. His parents and peers are not amused and do their best to shun him from the community, sending him to no uncertain death in the dungeon.

Of course, the stringent rules of Mouse Society can’t be the only evil in a great tale of woe and adventure. Along the way, our snowball of a story picks up Chiaroscuro, a rat who, like Despereaux, has a habit of breaking the mold, a habit which once landed him in hot soup and landed the entire kingdom in a lot of hot water and Miggery Sow, a beaten down, dim witted country girl with princess dreams.

The story is one of love and compassion beating out cold and fear. Bravery and kindness in the face of all desperation are rewarded and forgiveness and change of heart are paramount. Aside from the aforementioned bits where I thought I might have to squint through the violence and cruelty, the book is fantastic and has all of the winning components of the time tested stories of old. ( )