The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread

4.7 | 6,817 ratings

Price: 11.81

Last update: 07-14-2024

About this item

This is the story of Despereaux Tilling, a mouse in love with music, stories, and a princess named Pea. It is also the story of a rat called Roscuro, who lives in darkness but covets a world filled with light. And it is the story of Miggery Sow, a slow-witted serving girl with a simple, impossible wish. These characters are about to embark on a journey that will lead them down into a horrible dungeon, up into a glittering castle, and ultimately, into each other's lives.

And what happens then?

Listener, it is your destiny to find out.

Benjamin A.

Mouse to the Rescue

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2019

Amazing book!!!!! I had to read it for a school book report and loved it.

A little mouse named Desperaeux Tilling)s?( is that how you spell it? whatevs) seemed very unusual when he was born. He lives in castle with the rest of his family. One day he snuck out of his mouse hole and to listen to the king play music. While he is listening , he falls in love with the princes named Pea. He lets the princess hold him and talks to her when she starts crying. That is violating two HUGE mouse rules. For this,he is sent down to the dungeons where te rats live and rats EAT mice. When he is sent down there, he persuades Gregory the jailer to save him from the rats. He finds his way back out of the dungeons but gets caught by the cook and she chops of his tale! Then he finds out that Pea , the princess, has been taken down to the dungeons by a rat and maid( the made does it because she wants to become a princess but you'll learn about that when you read the whole book). He goes back dowm there but is captured by the rats but still saves princess. There is a lot more to the book but that is what the book is mainly about. I absolutely LOVE this book and highly recommand it to others. Definitely 5 STARS!!

Tonia

Captivating

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2024

I remembered this book from my childhood so I bought it for my 5th grader who isn’t much of a reader. The short chapters really motivated him to keep going and pretty soon I would find him picking up to read when it wasn’t his designated reading time. My 7th grader read it as well and loved it! It’s a keeper!

Exactly as pictured and signed by author.

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2024

My youngest is reading this in her 3rd grade class and she specifically asked for the book. Got it for her birthday she'll be excited to also see it's an author signed copy. Good story as well as I've listened to parts of it in her class.

Sebastian Mudry

One of my favorites of all time!

Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2023

This story is a gift to readers from adult through childhood. (Those who refuse to read 'fairy-tales' don't know what they're missing . . . ) B&W drawings are 'a-hoot'. The tale 'ends' w/a meaningful coda.

Mark Culbertson Jr.

The Best Book Ever (EDRD 303)

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2009

Kate DiCamillo's- The Tale of Despereaux : Book Review
Mark Culbertson, Gini Taylor, Janie Wells & Ashley Wood

"Reader you must know that an interesting fate awaits everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform."
-Stated by the "Narrator from The Tale of Despereaux

[...]
( here is a cute pic, but I couldn't get it to copy and paste)

Magical lands where mice are able to talk and become friends with a princess, that's the world that Kate DiCamillo offers in The Tale of Despereaux. According to Wikipedia.com, Kate wrote this story for a friend's son, who asked her to write a story about a hero with big ears. Despereaux is a mouse with big ears and a big imagination to match, as the reader will soon find. As in most of her books Kate takes the reader on a journey of awe and mystery.
The Tale of Despereaux is an inspiring story of trial, triumph, and overall a transformation of character. "The story of a mouse, a princess, some soup and a spool of thread" is very inspirational, imaginative, intriguing and innovative. Although Despereaux, the main character, was different from the other mice that surrounded him, he used his uniqueness to overcome obstacles and change the lives of others, and ultimately had a big influence on his own self esteem. His daring feats throughout the story shows an underlying message of courage and ultimately proved that being who you want to be, and proceeding with your dreams will in the end be useful, not only to the primary person, but also to those surrounding them. It is a great story for children to read when trying to understand personal differences and uniqueness. Although the book is a fantasy, children can relate Despereaux's story to their lives easily.
The book was well written it was easy to stay focused and caught up in what was happening in the book. When explaining what things looked like, she was very descriptive, for example describing the way the king slept," The king slept in his giant bed with his crown on his head and his hands on his chest, dreaming that his wife, the queen, was a bird with green and gold feathers who called his name, Phillip, Phillip, Phillip, without ceasing."
This is a great book and everyone should read it. It brings you out of this world and takes you into a fantasy world with castles, kings, talking mice and rats, as well as a princess. You get caught up in this book and then you find that you can't put it down. The adventures of Despereaux will keep you reading because you will want to see if he succeeds in accomplishing what he had set out to do. You will be rooting for him to overcome the many obstacles that seem to always find their way to him.
There is an interesting story of how Kate DiCamillo became the author of this exciting tale. She was asked by her son's best friend to write a story for him. He wanted the story to be about "an unlikely hero, with exceptionally large ears." When she asked him what happens to this character, he replied "That's why I want you to write the story, so we can find out."

Works cited:
DiCamillo, Kate. The Tale of Despereaux. April, 2006. Candle Press.

Kate DiCamillo. Retrieved September 16, 2009. Last updated September 12, 2009, from Wikipedia: [...]

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