The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Dicamillo

This book is about a young mouse named Despereaux that lives in a castle. But he is different from other mice [his family] who also lives in the castle. He would not eat the book’s pages instead read them. He learns to love the princess that lives in the castle and is destined to save her. On the way he will face challenges, but one thing he does will help him find the princess.

The characters are Despereaux, Princess Pea, King Philip, Roscuro, Miggery Sow, Botticelli, Lester Tilling, Antoinette Tilling, Furlough Tilling, Merlot Tilling, Gregory, and more minor characters. First, Despereaux. He is a young mouse with big ears and small body. Second, Princess Pea. She is a kind princess who does not really hate mice King Philip. He is kind to his daughter and hate rats or mice. He hates them because his wife, the queen, died because of a rat in her. Fourth, Roscuro. He is a rat from the dungeon. He is the rat who killed the queen and is now trying to get revenge on the princess. The reason is a bit of a spoiler so you can find out more in the book. Fifth Miggery Sow. Also called Mig. She is a poor girl who is not living in the castle, so later she joins sides with Roscuro. Sixth Botticelli. He is also a rat like Roscuro, but is meaner and crueler, and hates all life from the light. Seventh Lester Tilling. The father of Despereaux, he doesn’t really care about his son. Later, he just asks to save him. Eighth Antoinette Tilling. She is the mother of Despereaux. She also doesn’t care about Despereaux, only cares about how she looks and her makeup. Ninth Furlough Tilling. He is the brother of Despereaux. He teaches him how to scurry but Despereaux fails. Tenth Merlot Tilling. She is the sister of Despereaux. She teaches him how to eat a book and Despereaux fails again. Instead,Despereaux reads the book. Eleventh Gregory. He is the jail keeper in the prison. His hands are tied around with a red string so he can go around the maze in the prison. He makes Despereaux hopeless. But kind of supports him at the same time.

I learned in this book that love is very strong and you should always learn to love not to hate. I also learned that you should always be resilient. You should never give up hopes and end them. I read this book because this book is the book we choose to read together all together with our class.

There are until chapter 52 and there are 269 pages. Also there are contents and the author told the story by the characters view so there are 4 characters that are in the contents. 1. A Mouse Is Born. 2. Chiaroscuro. 3. Gor! The Tale Of Miggery Sow. 4. Recalled To The Light. This book is not that hard to read because the chapters are not long mostly it is 2 pages and sometimes more. I recommend this for 4th grade or maybe beginning of 5th grade. But it is your choice since there are good amount of pictures in the book, but not too much. I read it when I was fourth grade. Anyway this I wrote isn’t half of the information in the book, there are more hidden details. So make sure to check the book out.