The Tale of Despereaux book review - Kevin Liu

[Kevin]

The Tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo.
This book is about the adventures of a mouse named Despereaux Tilling, as he sets out on his quest to rescue a human princess from the rats. The novel is divided into four "books". Each "book" tells the story from a different character's or group of characters' perspective: Despereaux, Roscuro, Miggery Sow, and in the end, all them combined.
Despereaux Tilling was born differently from the other mice. His family didn't accept his ways of thinking and understanding of the world around him. When Despereaux was born, he was peculiarly small, but his ears were abnormally large. His family always had two things in mind, eating and hiding. But Despereaux views the world around him differently. His family tells him to never approach humans but one day Despereaux hears the sound of beautiful music and goes to investigate. He scuttles out of the clearing and there he meets the princess. A truly beautiful love story that shows that love has no confinements in society and life.
I personally love this book because of the author's writing style. As though the book was written in Old English it gives off the sense of peculiarity and mysteriousness. Kate DiCamillo does a stunning job of presenting ideas and quotes. For example, in the text it states, “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. Such was the fate of Chiaroscuro. His heart was broken. Picking up the spoon and placing it on his head, speaking of revenge, these things helped him to put his heart together again. But it was, alas, put together wrong.”
This book holds so much meaning. This book has changed my way of thinking and how anything is truly possible. The way the author brings two unexpected characters to meet is absolutely pulchritudinous.