tiny pink books

The Tale of Despereaux
by Kate DiCamillo
Scholastic, 2004

The Tale of Despereaux is the Newbery Medal winning tale of a tiny mouse who wants to be a knight.  Despereaux, our main mouse, does not fit in with the other mice.  Instead of focusing on such activities as eating and scurrying, Despereaux reads a fairy tale and falls in love with the castle princess.  The result, is the story of Despereaux’s exile and subsequent hero’s quest.  There is a princess, a king, some very mean rats, and a slow witted lazy girl named after a pig.

Tale of Despereaux is written in an interesting voice that addresses the you, the “dear reader,” in a way that gives the classic fairytale style a silly and witty feel.  The characters, too, are written with a wry sense of humor and hint of darkness that reminded me slightly of Mervyn Peake’s Gormonghast.  The problem I had with this book stems from this.  While the book’s tone has spurts of dryly sarcastic and dark humor, DiCamillo never quite commits to this, leaving us with an uneven plot that never quite moves away from the typical fairytale structure. The characters become cookie cutter as the book moves on:  we have one, tiny, underdog of a mouse for a hero, one motherless princess who is beautiful and smart, one dark and sinister rat as the villain, and, most upsetting, one fat, lazy, ugly girl who is dumber than a box of rocks.  Of course, I found some of these characters to be somewhat amusing (mostly the dumb and bumbling Miggery Sow), yet the fact that every character in this book seemed familiar and, in many cases, tired, left me feeling slightly bored.

All that said, there are many children who will enjoy The Tale of Despereaux. The book has a very classic fairytale feel to it and the postmodern narration adds a slightly original twist.  I have trouble using the word “original” when describing this book though.  Although there are elements of this book that are enjoyable and fun, everything in it has been done before.  Even so, children are fresh and new themselves…and this material may not be as tired and typical for them.  I would recommend it to children who are young enough to appreciate the wholesome, classic fairytale aspects of this book (it’s recommended 3rd grade and up and I would stick to the lower end of that age range).  As for me, after reading Tale of Despereaux, I found myself longing to reread The Secret of Nihm  to read a story that more successfully explores the whole rats vs mice in society concept.

The Giver
by Lois Lowrey
Houghton, 1994

The Giver is like 1984 for kids. I say “for kids,” not to imply that it is any less intriguing or thought provoking because The Giver is an incredibly interesting and sophisticated view of society and human experience. Set in a science fiction Utopian, or at least seemingly Utopian, world, The Giver is about Jonas, a 12-year-old boy who has been assigned to be the community’s Receiver of memories. He knows now what this job entails, but as he learns and grows from the community’s Giver, he comes to understand his society in a new and, in some ways, terrifying way.
The Giver is a wonderful book in that it is full of ideas and abstract concepts that have been made accessible to young readers (probably best for kids age 12 and up, though younger readers with an ability to grasp the concepts in this book may also enjoy). Although The Giver is about society and experience, it is also in itself a very good story. The character of Jonas is likable and very easy to relate to. He seems to grow up quite a bit in the book and his journey from complacency to active resistance is enjoyable and inspiring.
I think that where The Giver truly succeeds is in its ability to raise questions from readers, young and old. This book would serve well to be used as a discussion starter for children. A Newbery award winner, it is a great piece of children’s literature, but what is most remarkable about it, and probably the reason it is such a respected book, is not necessarily the actual story, but the ideas within the story and the questions that it can inspire.