The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread Hardcover – August 25, 2003

A couple of reviews say that parents started reading this to their kids and stopped in the middle because of darkness, and they say the darkness is inappropruate. As someone who actually finished the book, I disagree. I had this story read to me as a young child, I read it again on my own when I was an older child, and as an adult I re-read it while thinking about sharing it with the next generation. This story lead me to think about empathy for people who hurt me, difficult moral choices, and forgiveness. It was a very good and positive influence on me.Parents, when a book's title translates to "The Tale of Despair," you can expect it to be a story that addresses despair.Parents, if you want to excercise your right to choose what media to expose your children to, you should look at the content BEFORE you start sharing it with your child. If you start reading this story and stop in the middle because the despair scares you, the message will be: "Life is hopeless. Bad things happen and they just get worse, and you should give up on the possibility of a happy ending." If you read the book all the way to the end, the message will be: "Even when you are surrounded by despair and darkness, there is value in reaching for the light." You can choose whether or not you want to share this story with your children, but choose one way or the other, don't expose them to the darkness and then deny them the light of the resolution. If you start, you have to finish.

As huge fans of Kate DiCamillo and after seeing that the book received hundreds of positive reviews, we were ecstatic to start The Tale of Despereaux! We were immediately disappointed. The story is slow and dull and could not hold my upper elementary children’s attention. Then the story turned dark, really dark. Despite the deeply disturbing storyline, we pressed on through the first two sections of the book (the book is divided into 3 distinct sections). Section 2 continued to spiral down until we felt that the context was no longer appropriate for children. At several points in section 2, I had to read ahead because I was honestly afraid of how much darker the story was going to go and didn’t want to accidentally read something inappropriate aloud. We stopped at the end of section 2 and never finished the book. I would not recommend this book to anyone, and frankly, the positive reviews it received make me question all positive reviews on Amazon.

Such a lovely story. The Amazon writeup says ages 7+, but I just finished reading this to my twin 6-year-olds. I did have to stop and explain some of the nuances, and some of the vocabulary, but they were hanging on every word -- and I looked forward to reading a couple of chapters every night before bedtime.As some reviewers have pointed out, there are some dark and sad elements to the story. There is loss and betrayal and cruelty. If you are uncomfortable exposing your kids to that, you might want to read this yourself before reading it to them, and think about how you will talk about those things. But there is also courage and forgiveness and kindness, and a lot of heart. You should be prepared to take your kids on a deeper emotional and moral journey than you'll find in most children's books, and if you're up for that, this book is a great guide and a brilliant tale.

This book is incredibly dark and promotes evil and torture. It is also totally unconvincing in it's narrative. My 6 year old LOVED the authors other books - the Mercy Watson series and Because of Winn Dixie, but he and I had to stop reading this 25 pages in as it was so dull, so disturbing and hugely inappropriate for children. How did the Newbury committee gives this book the top honor for a CHILDREN'S book??!!

The fact that there are so many positive reviews for this book is yet another example of how far gone our society is. To take a book that is filled with truly evil intent, child abuse, human torture, and emotional darkness and call it a children's book about forgiveness is nothing short of disgusting. Human emotion is real, yes. There is sadness and even darkness in the world, yes. But to tell it from such a perspective as this, which made my three boys sick, scared, and have bad dreams, is criminal. Perhaps this author had a severely dysfunctional childhood and that is manifesting itself in the form of this book. Whatever the reason, my heart goes out to any child that is subject to this material, for the darkness it may introduce them too at way too young an age, and for the way it will shape the minds of kids living in a society where depression and anxiety in our youth is rampant. With books like this as part of their upbringing it's easy to understand why. Kids should see the world as innocently and purely as they can for as long as they can. They deserve as much. That kind of innocence is only with us for such a short time in our childhood. We stopped this book a little over halfway through when none of us could stomach one more chapter. My oldest son skipped to the end and said there was forgiveness and all ends well. Great, glad to know. But at what cost for the journey to get there? Would rather have taught my kids this theme from an old classic like "Where The Red Fern Grows." Do yourself a favor and skip this modern disaster.

We are Rocky’s Book Club, composed of 3rd, 4th & 5th graders. We read the book, “The Tale of Despereaux” and this is what we thought of it.Our favorite parts were when Despereaux the brave mouse falls in love with the Princess, and he is willing to do anything to save her from the evil rats. There were evil rats, a death in a family and plenty of perfidy in this story. But as the quest goes on, Despereaux becomes a brave mouse. The one thing we would caution to other readers, is that some parts are emotional and could bring you to tears. And sometimes it can be confusing the way the story goes backwards and forwards from the present tense. Would we recommend this book? Yes, if you think you’d like a story about a brave, little mouse who has such a big quest ahead of him. We rate this book at 5 stars.

A dark book that makes light of child abuse and Death. I couldn’t finish even as an adult.

Thought I'd order a hardcover edition of this book as I have a hardcover edition of her other book, 'The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane'. Had to order it from the Marketplace and it arrived earlier this morning a week earlier than the estimated delivery date. All seemed fine and as described, but to my dismay, the pages are uneven, but top and bottom sides are even and cleancut. Is it meant to look like this? Was this intentionally done as part of the story?I haven't read the book yet, but I did a quick check to see if all the pages are included, and it seemed like they are. The quality is, like I said, good considering the age of the book, but I was just really disappointed by the uneven pages. I have never seen anything like this before until now. Seems like another reviewer had a similar issue. There is no point in returning the book as it was from an overseas seller.*I will edit my review after I finish reading it.

This is the best children's story I've read for a long long time! I love stories about animals, and I love stories about mice. Living in the country, it is not difficult for me to imagine little animals such as this as having little personalities with almost human traits! The illustrations - though somewhat faint and slightly 'misty' are a magic all their own - and quite delightful, and very interesting too when you look more closely! This is a truly wonderful book, and I don't often re-read novels, but I feel certain that before long I shall be SO wanting re-read this one!This book has a good number of pages - but the writing is large, and the chapters very short which makes for lovely convenient breaks which I like - but be warned; your breaks shall not be very long! I found myself saying `just one more chapter' to myself before I would put it aside for any reasonable length of time! In fact, I was so delighted with this novel, I immediately went to look on Amazon, and purchased another by this same author! Now; you will understand the importance in this for me, when I say that I NEVER do this as a rule - no matter how good the book, and so this really must say something about this fabulous read!The story is tremendously imaginative and full of atmosphere - little mice scuttling along skirting boards and inside wall crevices - rats in dungeons and so on, and whilst I do agree (to a point) about the little distractions when the author intervenes and talks as to the reader can be a little irritant (for those of you who have complained in their reviews about it) I too have to confess at suffering the same feeling initially, and though it did throw me just a little at the outset, I soon became used to it (quite more than I thought I would) and actually enjoyed that side of it eventually! After all; it's a long long time since anyone read me a story, and so I viewed it that way, and felt after all it was a nice and unique touch from this great children's writer, which made the whole read quite different and a whole new experience for me! I just LOVED the writer's touch when not only did she state that `Despereaux's' mother was a French mouse - but she went on to explain how a French mouse came to be in England! I thought that bit was quite enchanting and lovely!Absolutely delightful, and I can well imagine many children being totally enthralled and immersed in the adventures of little `Despereaux' - the lovely `shrewish', yet brave little mouse!LOVED IT - and for the first time in my life, it had me hoping there would be a second book! (normally I don't entertain them) Must say something!Recommended for ANY age group!

Most amazing book, great story with many twists and turns. As always with Kate, beautifully written.

Such a charming book. Short enough to read in one sitting but it’s so powerful and really stays with you. Really really loved it

super read