The Tale of Despereaux has a reason to celebrate its 20th Anniversary        

Why should books celebrate their anniversary? Every book is not worthy of celebrating its initial publishing date. The mere passage of time doesn’t make most books better; however, in some cases, it can celebrate their timelessness. Originally published in 2003 The Tale of Despereaux has a newly available Deluxe Anniversary Edition available now. There’s nothing magical that makes twenty years special, it’s the fact that The Tale of Despereaux crackles as kidlit. Moreover, it’s written and presented in a manner that makes those mid-elementary school students want to read it.

It’s a smart, well-written example of kidlit that tells a multi-level story from different perspectives that spans different times. The Tale of Despereaux is presented in four different books that are told from different perspectives. The first three stories are presented from one main character, while the fourth story brings all of the threads together for a very satisfying end. To make things even less resistant for those reluctant readers, the individual chapters are brief at maybe around four to six pages long. Most of the chapters have a very regal illustration to accompany the story and all of the pages in this edition have torn edges that provide the illusion that the book is a long-lost secret text that’s been smuggled out of a castle.

The Tale of Despereaux, being the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup and a spool of thread, does take place in a castle, in times of yore, but it’s no old-fangled fairy tale. The elements of a classic fairy tale are all present, but they’re told in a way that’s timeless, in addition to having the heel that ultimately drives every young reader.

The villain, the heel in wrestling vocabulary, must be evil enough to drive the disdain that powers reluctant readers to want to read the next page. The heel in Despereaux has many fronts: the dungeon, the rats that live in the dungeon, the mysterious person who lives there, and Migery Sow. Where there is a great heel, there needs to be a strong light to demonstrate how bad things are when everything is considered. Despereaux is the light, the runt mouse of a litter who was born with ears that are far too large and eyes that were open from the get-go.

His eyes were open when he was born. That’s a great metaphor when you think about it, but in the book it’s played as a matter of fact and not for philosophical banter. It’s just a happy coincidence that Despereaux will demonstrate his ability to speak with humans. He reaches out to others when the masses are saying that he should just be quiet and actively puts on display the intelligence that others exhibit in private. Once he’s sentenced to the dungeon, a place of almost certain death, he walks down with his back straight and his shoulders strong.

This is also where the first ‘book’ in The Tale of Despereaux ends and the second one starts. Chiaroscuro is the second chapter and named after one of the foul rats that run the dungeon where our title character has been sent. The part of the greater story is from his perspective but weaves in other elements. The third chapter is from Migery Sow’s perspective; she’s the girl who wants to be a princess for all of the wrong reasons. And just like the second chapter, it blends in some characters, albeit from a hands-off manner, that are integral to the overall story.

By the time the fourth chapter hits readers the story is in full swing, with readers full invested in all of their threads. What’s surprising for older readers is how breathlessly the book moves. The pages blend into one another with such ease that it’s a challenge to stop reading. The characters are immediately memorable and able to withstand being somewhat absent for a handful of chapters while the story tells itself from a slightly different angle. This is a subtle thing where younger readers won’t realize that their memory muscle is being built. It’s setting the stage for more advanced storytelling, but those young readers won’t realize it or care because it’s being done via such a fun, well-written story. This is the timeless kind of magic that grades three and up will read this year, or in twenty more and still find the book endlessly entertaining.

The Tale of Despereaux is by Kate DiCamillo with illustrations by Timothy Basil Ering. This is the Deluxe Anniversary Edition of the book that celebrates its 20^th Anniversary and is available on Candlewick Press.

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