The Tale of Desperaux - Winner of the 2004 Newbery Medal

The Tale of Desperaux is written by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering. I happened upon this fairytale-like story when my third-grade son brought it home from school for his group reading project. I instantly identified its ability to fill two purposes in my life, it met the requirements of this class assignment and gave me the perfect reason to spend some quality reading time with my son.

I absolutely loved this story! There are so many interesting characters, including Desperaux, a mouse who from birth is not mouse-like at all; Roscuro, a rat who is responsible for the death of the queen and the outlawing of soup and spoons in the kingdom; Miggery Sow, who is a simple-minded girl who wants to be a princess and believes that Roscuro can make her one; and the Princess Pea, the sweet, good-hearted young royal. This story has a hero, a villain, action/adventure, and, of course, like any good fairytale, the story ends happily!

DiCamillo used such an interesting approach to telling this story. This story is told through the voice of a narrator, and throughout the book, the narrator directly addresses the reader with questions and thought-provoking comments. The soft, black-and-white illustrations also add to the appeal of this book. I loved the fact that Icould see what the main characters looked like.

References:

DiCamillo, K. (2003). The Tale of Desperaux. New York: Scholastic.

Kate DiCamillo. (2008). The Tale of Deperaux. Retrieved on February 14, 2008, from http://www.katedicamillo.com/books/tale.html