Wow, a lot happens and I’m not quite sure how to compress it all so from here out I’ll just be posting whenever I have enough stuff OR at least Monday and Thursday.
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“Book 1” in The Tale of Despereaux opens with a litter of mice being born, and the only one to survive is born with big ears and open eyes. Apparently, the mother – who is French (“mon dieu”) – is extremely self-centered, being highly disappointed that she did “all that work for nothing.” She goes so far as to name this lone mouse Despereaux because she thinks he is going to have a highly depressing life and will die in the near future.
The reader quickly learns hat Despereaux is very weak and sickly, the runt of the family no doubt. Though, as one might expect, he has extremely acute hearing, or at least a great appreciation of sound. It reminded me a bit of August Rush when Despereaux tells his brother that a noise he hears “sounds like honey.”
Besides music and sounds, Despereaux seems to have a special appreciation for simple beauty such as sunlight or a book. I thought it very interesting that he could read the book, where as it implies that mice only eat book pages. Perhaps these mice are just born with the ability to read. At any rate, when he reads the book – which tells the story of a princess and the brave knights that serves and protects her – it seems to be some kind of foreshadowing. The author also gives us a hint about how the rats will play into the story.
As hard as they try (though it seems as though their efforts were half-hearted) Despereaux’s family gives up on him, apparently he fails at being a mouse. Progressing in the plot, I loved the word picture the author used to describe how Despereaux felt at first hearing music: “The sound of the king’s music made Despereaux’s soul grow large and light inside of him.” I can easily picture that little, big-eared mesmerized by the song. When Despereaux looses all mousely instincts, it is entertaining to hear the king insist that the mouse is a bug.
Princess Pea is always first introduced in this scene. Since her father still sings songs to her every night before bed, it seems she would be rather young. Her articulate words, compassion and adamant attitude lead me to think that she is probably somewhere around the age of eight or nine. Old enough to be “her own person” but young enough as to not make the story too awkward.
When I first read that Despereaux was without a doubt, definitely, totally in love with Princess Pea, it made me think a lot of imprinting from Twilight. The idea that Despereaux was in love, perhaps something more than “in love”, for better or for worse, without a cure and without any choice. The fact that the author calls this love “ridicules” is spot on, though this silly emotion makes Despereaux seem even more naïve and innocent, leaving the reader no room ill-judge the small mouse.
A smile was brought to my face when Despereaux’s father learns how his son’s interactions with the humans and blames it on the French. It can be assumed he is specifically blaming the mother, as she is French. The mouse council is called. It appears that Despereaux is in BIG trouble for having a king as a friend and a Pea as a crush.
Back to Princess Pea, the king and the mouse, the author seems to refer to Despereaux’s ears in continually larger terms, as they are now not just big but “oversized.” And yet, Pea still refers to them as small, as they would appear to humans. The reader is entertained with funny dialogue between the princess and her father (more Pea-Attitude), but we also get some valuable information.
The queen hates rats, assumably from some dark history, and those would not like have a mouse as a friend as mice are “distant relatives” of the royal family’s enemies. Pea starts to cry when the king tells Despereaux to “scat”, but of course, being a mouse in love, Despereaux was not easily swayed. He speaks out to Pea, in the company of the humans (much larger than him) his voice must have sounded rather small and squeaky and beyond cute.
Finally the king gets him to run and I LOVE how Despereaux says “I honor you” to Pea before leaving just like the knight in the story. This adds to his innocent character, who obviously wants to be just like the knight but really doesn’t know much about knightly things beyond the book. If only he knew the trouble he was getting into.
At the mouse council, it is agreed that there is something wrong with Despereaux. Well, of course! A mouse will large ears, small body, sickly conditions and a lack of fear for humans MUST be alien! At least, that’s how the council seems to see things. I didn’t relate to them much, as of course the reader is meant to be on Despereaux’s side, but the author did a good job of making these issues seem very important.
Despereaux is condemned to the dungeon with the rats, for he is as bad as them it seems, though they do make a point to say that he can confess and at least “go to the dungeon with a pure heart.” Reminds me of National Treasure: “…you still go to jail but you feel better inside.” It seems that Despereaux’s father Leester is the only one grieved over this decision.
iRead Fiction 