Book Report : THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX

This book is called THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX, written by an author named Kate DiCamillo! It is about a small mouse named Despereaux and he lives in the walls of the castle with his family. But, he is different from every other mouse because he has big ears and was born with his eyes open, which, is not common for a mouse. The elderly mice thought it was a very dangerous sign. He also started reading human books and one of his favourite books had a knight and a maiden and the story was all about how the knight saves the maiden. Despereaux is destined to do human activities (in spite of being a mouse) like saving people and being brave. The plot thickens, when, sitting in the hole of the princess’ bedroom one night, he falls in love with her! Isn’t that totally bizarre? The princess sees Despereaux and touches him and he starts to feel a mix of intense happiness and love. (I learnt the word ‘intense’ from this book in the part where the author says “He felt an intense pain in the hind quarters :)). Despereaux starts to break rule by rule of the mouse community (like he talked to a human and a human touched him) and is ordered to go to the dungeon by ‘The Most Very Honored Head (Mouse) Person’. Despereaux felt desparate and betrayed when he realised that his entire family had let him down. His father beat the drum that led him to his fate, his mum just said farewell - “adios” instead of trying to save him and his brother, Furlough, delivered him to the dungeon! Deep in the dungeon, the little mouse gets caught by Gregory the jailer and to save his life Despereaux is asked to tell a story. Do you remember Despereaux’s favourite story I mentioned before in the book report? That’s the story he told! Meanwhile, upstairs in castle, the Queen dies because of an evil rat, Roscuro, who accidentally fell into her soup! After the incident of the queen dying, Roscuro wants to take revenge because of the way the Princess Pea looks at him with disgust and the way she calls him “RAT!” which makes him feel like he is a horribly, disgusting animal (which is probably true!). Beyond the walls of the castle, in a little hut is Miggery Sow (with ‘cauliflower ears’) who is tortured by her uncle and taken to the castle to be a helper. Roscuro puts his revenge in action when he plants an evil plan in Mig’s mind and Mig and Roscuro set off to imprison the princess in the dungeon. When Despereaux comes out and hears about the princess missing, he remembers the knight in the story, and goes with a spool of thread and a needle and saves the princess. In the end, in spite of what the rat, Roscuro, did to the princess, she forgives him and they become friends! And it all ends happily ever after.

What I like about this book is:

v Not only is this an adventurous story, but there are also quite a few lessons to be learnt in it:

Ø  Like it doesn’t matter who you are, you can do anything

Ø  If you have made a mistake, you should undo it when you can

Ø  I also like the way Kate DiCamillo got the idea of the princess, the mouse and the rat and the way the princess forgave the rat in the end and they all became friends (another lesson!)

v The way the author writes:

Ø  She tells the story while writing it. I like the way she speaks directly to the reader as part of the story.

Ø  She really sucks me into the story and I feel like I am witnessing it all.

Ø  I like that she has lessons in her story and now I think I might also want to write some things about lessons in my stories!!! :) 

v I also like some of the feelings she puts in like bravery, despair, perseverance and forgiveness:

Ø  Bravery – For example, Despereaux has the courage to go back to the dungeon in order to save the Princess Pea whom he loves very deeply

Ø  Despair – because of how desperate he feels when his family lets him down

Ø  Perseverance - because Despereaux never stopped trying even though he failed at first (By the way, I like the word ‘perseverance’ because it’s a long word and feels soothing to me)

Ø  Forgiveness – because even though Despereaux’s father sends him to the dungeon, he forgives him and when Despereaux saves the princess, she too forgives Roscuro the rat who captured her. I noticed that the people who had been forgiven in both parts were crying when they were forgiven.

This book has some difficult words like Perfidy and some others. So it can be difficult to understand but I also learnt some new words.

I would give it a 9 out of 10 rating because it is a very nice and emotional book. I think it is a good book that you can discuss with your friends and even if you don’t write a book report like me, you can keep it in your mind. 

FIND OUT WHAT I MEAN BY READING THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX! 

YOU CAN BUY IT HERE ( only $6 on Kindle)