Kate DiCamillo, the author of "Because of Winn-Dixie" has another book soon to hit the silver screen and this one has a Newbery medal for children's fiction. "The tale of Despereaux" is told in an oral narrative style with the narrator speaking directly to the reader and adding her own commentary on events as they unfold. Although the phrase is over-used, "contemporary fairytale" certainly fits this book.
The title character is a free-thinking mouse who falls in love with a princess and ends up defending her against the schemes of a rat and an ambitious yet dim-witted servant girl. It's all set in a castle with the requisite dungeon full of moaning prisoners. The king is feeble-brained enough to ban soup throughout his land but he loves his daughter as only a doting father could.
Despite the stock characters and setting, DiCamillo comes up with a fresh light story with a lovely moral at the end. The charm is in the writing itself. The freshness comes from examining the internal battles that each of the major characters fights. We get a brief exploration of motivation and feelings behind the actions of good guys and bad guys. As a result, the line dividing the good guys from the bad guys gets blurred and we learn that mean actions don't necessarily indicate a wholeheartedly mean person. What a revelation!
Despite the moralizing, this book is primarily a story, not a sugar-coated lesson. It's definitely written for the younger set but it works as a bedtime story for adults as well. If you are a Roald Dahl fan, you should give this one a try.
"The tale of Despereaux" by Kate DiCamilla. Published in 2003 by Candlewick Press. ISBN: 978-0-7636-1722-6.
About Me
- Carol
- What would you call this room? According to the floor plan, it's a living room and the first thing you see when you open our front door. It's not exactly a traditional living room set-up. Some would call it a studio. Others would call it a mess. It's where I build houses...and my family's OK with that.