The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

by Kate DiCamillo

“But answer me this: how can a story end happily if there is no love?

Never in his life had Edward been cradled like a baby. Abilene had not done it. Nor had Nellie. And most certainly Bull had not. It was a singular sensation to be held so gently and yet so fiercely, to be stared down at with so much love. Edward felt the whole of his china body flood with warmth.

Edward tried to listen, but the terrible scarecrow feeling had come back, the feeling he had when he was hanging by his ears in the old lady’s garden, the feeling that nothing mattered, and that nothing would ever matter again.

Don’t go, thought Edward. I won’t be able to bear it if you go.

If you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless.