The Tale of Despereaux

by Kate DiCamillo

Did you think that rats do not have hearts? Wrong. All living things have a heart. And the heart of any living thing can be broken.

There are those hearts, reader, that never mend again once they are broken. Or if they do mend, they heal themselves in a crooked and lopsided way, as if sewn together by a careless craftsman.

And when times are terrible, soup is the answer.

Pea was aware suddenly of how fragile her heart was, how much darkness was inside it, fighting, always, with the light.