The Tale of Despereaux

The Tale of Despereaux is a book about a small but courageous mouse, a servant girl, a princess, a rat with a

    twisted heart and many more. It is a 2004 Newbery Medal winning fantasy book written by Kate DiCamillo. The main plot follows the adventures of a mouse named Despereaux Tilling, as he sets out on his quest to rescue a beautiful human princess. The novel is divided into four books, also called parts, (meaning a new point of view) chapters, and a coda. Each "book" tells the story from the perspective of a different character: Despereaux, Roscuro, Miggery Sow, and all together. In 2008, the book was adapted into an animated film of the same name. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children." It was one of the "Top 100 Chapter Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by *School Library Journal*.

## Summary

The novel is divided into four books. Book I covers Despereaux's childhood; Book II focuses on Roscuro, a dungeon rat with a mysterious past. The third book is about Miggery Sow, a servant girl who is sold by her father for a red table cloth, a handful of cigarettes and a hen. The first three books are set years apart, all building up to the fourth book, which concludes the novel with Despereaux saving the princess from the dungeon.

### Book I: A Mouse Is Born

Book one tells a story about a small, sickly mouse born in a castle whose name is Despereaux. He was born a runt with large ears and eyes. Despereaux, unlike other mice, spends lots of time reading. He particularly enjoys a book about how a knight saves a princess and they live happily ever after. One day while reading he hears music. He follows the sound and is led to Princess Pea and King Philip. He falls in love with the princess and speaks to her, but the king led the mouse away because mice were related to rats, which are a danger to the kingdom. Furlough, his brother, sees this and tells his father, Lester Tilling. Lester calls the mouse council; Furlough goes to collect Despereaux . The mouse council orders Despereaux to be sent to the dungeon because talking to a human is forbidden. In the dungeon he meets Gregory, the jailer, who saves him because Despereaux tells Gregory a story.

### Book II: Chiaroscuro

Book II talks about a rat named Roscuro who, unlike the other rats, loved the light and was less vicious and cunning than the other rats... for the time.

### Book III:The Tale of Miggery Sow

Many years before Despereaux and Roscuro were born, a six-year-old girl named Miggery "Mig" Sow witnesses the death of her ill mother, who tells her that there is nobody in the world who cares what she wants. Afterwards, Mig is sold to work by her father for some cigarettes, a hen, and a red tablecloth to a man Mig calls "Uncle". Uncle often clouts Mig's ears, leaving her partially deaf. Mig decides, upon seeing the princess pass by on a horse, that she wants to be a princess. Mig is then sent to work in the castle by the King's soldiers, who tell "Uncle" that no human being is allowed to own another. In the castle she gains weight and becomes lazy. Mig's main job is to go down to the dungeons to deliver Gregory the jailer his meal and, while there, she meets Roscuro and confesses to him that her greatest wish is to become a princess. Roscuro convinces Mig that if she helps him kidnap Princess Pea, he'll make her a servant girl so Miggery Sow can become a princess.

### Book IV: Recalled to the Light

Despereaux escapes the dungeons on a tray of Gregory's that Mig brings back to the kitchen, where he hears her conversation with Roscuro. However, Despereaux is soon discovered by Mig and Cook. Cook, as a mouse-hating woman, orders Mig to kill Despereaux. She explains to Mig that her philosophy with mice is"kill 'em, even if they're already dead." When Despereaux is attempting to flee, Mig chops off his tail with a knife so that she can tell Cook that she missed the "meecy" and at least spare the "meecy"'s life. Despereaux spends the night in pain, sleeping on a sack of flour. He dreams of knights in shining armor, darkness, and light. However, when the knight removes the helmet, it doesn't reveal anyone. Despereaux begins to doubt "'happily ever after" and everything else that he has read and starts to weep. Meanwhile, Roscuro leads Mig to Princess Pea's room with a knife, and to kidnap the Pea and lead her to the dungeon.

The next morning, the castle is in a panic over the missing Princess. Guards are sent to search the dungeon, only to find Gregory dead from starvation, being lost in the dark because Roscuro has chewed the rope which secures him to where he started from. Despereaux is seen by the mouse council which mistakes him for a ghost because he is covered in flour from his night on the flour sack. Despereaux forgives his father upon his father asking him to, for sentencing him to the dungeon. Despereaux goes on to seek the King. Despereaux tells the King that he knows that Pea is in the dungeon, but the King refuses to believe him because Despereaux is related distantly to the rats.

Despereaux then goes to Hovis, a mouse who is, in secret, Despereaux's friend. Hovis gives him an entire spool of red thread and a sewing needle, as a sword, for his quest to the dungeons. Mig, meanwhile, learns that Roscuro tricked her into helping him kidnap Pea, and that she will never be a princess. Roscuro plans for Pea to remain locked in the dungeons, so that he can marvel over her brightly colored dress, but Despereaux arrives to save Pea and Mig chops Roscuro's tail off with the knife when he refuses to show them the way back. However, many rats arrive on the scene because they followed the smell of Despereaux, and the soup he recently ate. Despereaux threatens to kill Roscuro with the sewing needle. Roscuro begins crying. Pea offers that if Roscuro lets her go, she will treat him with some soup. Roscuro agrees. Botticelli and the other rats are so disgusted by the happiness of all that is happening that they all return into the darkness.

Despereaux and Pea become close friends. Roscuro is allowed access into the upstairs of the castle, and reunites Mig's father, who has become a prisoner in the dungeons, with his daughter. Mig's father promises that he loves Mig and will never leave her. But before this, however, Roscuro, Mig, the King, Pea, and Despereaux all get together for soup, as Despereaux's friend Hovis, his parents, and his brother watch in amazement behind the scenes.