The Tales of Despereaux

The Tale of Despereaux is about a mouse born in a castle, but this mouse isn’t like other mice.  Despereaux is very small with huge ears, and he doesn’t show interest in things that most mice show interest in.  Rather than going to the library to chew the books like his brothers and sisters do, Despereaux enjoys going to read them.  Eventually, Despereaux’s strange interests lead him to meet the King and the Princess Pea.  Despereaux gets so close to them that the Princess bends down and pets his head, and leads him to fall in love with the Princess.  While Despereaux sits with the Princess, one of his brothers spies him.  Being anywhere near a human, let alone the Princess, is strictly against mouse rules, so he runs and tell his father and the Mouse Council.  The Mouse Council demands to see Despereaux and hold a trial.  This kind of behavior is unacceptable to mice and he must be sent to the dungeon.  After the trial, Despereaux is walked to the cold, dark dungeon. 

Once the novel gets to the dungeon, the reader is introduced to a new character named Chiaroscuro.  Chiaroscuro is a rat that lives in the dungeon, but is obsessed with the light that is upstairs.  One day, he decides to venture upstairs and indulge in the beauty and light of castle and somewhere along the way he stumbles into the banquet hall where the King, Queen, and Princess are dining.  After he climbs onto the chandelier that hangs above the table, he accidentally slips and falls directly into the Queen’s soup.  The Queen becomes so petrified by that scene that she falls over dead, and as the rat runs out of the banquet hall the Princess gives him a look of utter despair that says “please never return to the light of the castle again.”  Chiaroscuro was so hurt by the look that the Princess gave him that he vows one day he will have his revenge.  Then the novel introduces to us the character of Miggery Sow and her desire to become a princess after a long life of sorrow and disappointment.  Once Miggery comes to the castle, Chiaroscuro takes advantages of her in his plot to get revenge on the princess by getting her lost in the dungeon forever.           

Luckily, Despereaux hears of Chiaroscuro’s evil plot while he is escaping from the dungeon.   Although he was unable not stop Chiaroscuro and Miggery from leading Princess Pea into the dungeon, he may be able to save her before she is lost forever.                 

DiCamillo, K., & Ering, T. (2003). The tale of Despereaux: Being the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread. Cambridge, Mass.: Candlewick Press.