The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup… (2003)

My 8 year old liked this book a lot, but I wasn't as enthusiastic. There was so much nastiness to the story, but then again, maybe it's not that different from the Grimm's fairy tales I loved when I was about the same age. I would love to know why the princess was named Pea. ( )

"Tiny mouse Despereaux cannot conform to his mouse family's standards; he falls in love with Princess Pea, and when he allows himself to be seen, the other mice banish him to the dungeon where the rats live. Chiaroscuro - Roscuro - is a dungeon rat who dreams of light and color, but when he ventures upstairs and falls into the queen's soup, startling her to death, he vows revenge on those who hate him. Finally, poor Miggery Sow, a poor girl traded away by her father and boxed around the ears so much she nearly goes deaf, turns up at the palace as a servant. Roscuro teams up with Mig to kidnap Princess Pea and (Mig thinks) swap places, but Roscuro plans to keep Pea in the dungeon. Luckily for Pea, her knight in shining armor - Despereaux - is coming to save her."

Tiny mouse Despereaux cannot conform to his mouse family's standards; he falls in love with Princess Pea, and when he allows himself to be seen, the other mice banish him to the dungeon where the rats live. Chiaroscuro - Roscuro - is a dungeon rat who dreams of light and color, but when he ventures upstairs and falls into the queen's soup, startling her to death, he vows revenge on those who hate him. Finally, poor Miggery Sow, a poor girl traded away by her father and boxed around the ears so much she nearly goes deaf, turns up at the palace as a servant. Roscuro teams up with Mig to kidnap Princess Pea and (Mig thinks) swap places, but Roscuro plans to keep Pea in the dungeon. Luckily for Pea, her knight in shining armor - Despereaux - is coming to save her. This is a classic story with courtly language and a lot of "Dear Reader..." ( )

This was a really interesting read. I loved the themes of light and dark, empathy, and the choices made because of strong emotions. The characters, setting, and writing were excellent; I really enjoyed the author speaking to the reader at times. However, this is a book with some themes that may not be good for young listeners/readers- there is abuse, parental death, and family abandonment. My children (6, 9) seemed okay with it- though did find some aspects kind of scary or disturbing. ( )

This story follows a tiny mouse and his quest as he is no ordinary mouse. Despereaux was small even for a mouse, and he had large ears. The story shows that it is okay to be different. The book is split into four books the first three following the the individual main characters, before all of the stories connect in book four. This book could be useful in the classroom to show the students that it is okay to be unique. Multiple content areas could use this book, science could do a study on the differences between a mouse and a rat. Math could estimate and use the population growth formula to find how large the rat and mouse populations were. ELAR could easily use this a a great book to tie into a unit. This is a chapter book and it received the Newbery Honor Award in 2004. ( )