The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate Dicamillo
This book wants to be a fairy tale in the style of the Brother’s Grim, or perhaps the more modern style of Wrede’s “Dragon” series. Unfortunately, it is a little too sacharine to be authentic, and the story is ultimately unsatisfying.
This story might be best for parents to read to toddlers or those who can’t handle complex characters. Which is odd, because the nonlinear nature of the story means that those readers may be easily confused by the back-and-forth style, in which four central characters interact loosely in different time lines.
Anybody past the fourth grade is going to be disappointed by the ending, which is altogether too pat and nice. It’s conflict resolution of the “Why don’t we all just get along” sort, and in this book, everyone genially does.
I was initially pleased with the characterizations, because Dicamillo avoids making any stereotypical “bad guys” for the reader to hate. It’s best to have villains with understandable motives, who act reasonably in the pursuit of their goals. But a mexican standoff climax where everyone agrees to go home and have a nice cup of soup is more of an anticlimax.
For the most part, children want some gruesome in their stories- witness the success of the Lemony Snickett books, or the “Goosebumps” series. Heck, even the bowdlerized versions of the Grim Fairy Tales are pretty vicious.
I’m going against the crowd here, because this book won a Newberry, and has about 4.5 stars on Amazon. Most people who didn’t like it are against the child abuse that is perpetuated on a character. I think that if the suffering lead to something more, then it would contribute to the story. Unfortunately, it is glossed over and ignored in the conclusion.
To sum up:
I’d like a second version of this story better- One aimed for older kids. If you are mature enough to follow the multiple threads of this story, then you are mature enough to get an ending that doesn’t patronize.
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
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