The Tale of Despereaux is written in four parts (four books). The first book of four tells Despereaux's sad story, he loves the human world and doesn't wish to act like a mouse. Through his adventures in the castle Despereaux meets and falls deeply in love with Princess Pea. He is then cast out of the world of light by his own father and the high order of mice. When Despereaux is cast out he is sent to the dungeons where the rats live. Mice are not expected to survive the dungeon. The second book introduces another creature who differs from his peers: Chiaroscuro, a rat who instead of loving the darkness of his home in the dungeon, loves the light so much he ends up in the castle and finds his way into the queen's soup (and in the process is called a rat - here he discovers that rats are hated and loathed inside the castle). This experience leaves Chiaroscuro scarred and sets into motion a course of events that will change life in the castle. The third book describes young Miggery Sow, a girl who has been "clouted" so many times that she has cauliflower ears and has become nearly deaf because of it. Still, all the slow-witted, hard-of-hearing Mig dreams of is wearing the crown of Princess Pea. The fourth book returns to the dungeon-bound Despereaux and connects the lives of mouse, rat, girl, and princess in a dramatic denouement.
I love the way that the author (Kate Dicamillo) interweaves 4 seperate stories into one culminating story. From the start I really did not understand why there 4 mini books but after fininshing the novel it makes perfect sense. You have to be able to sympathize with all four characters and the only way to do that is to know everything that they have been through. You would not want to sympathize with Chiaroscuro the rat simply because he is a rat. However, you might want to sympathize with him when you learn that he is not all that different than Despereaux; neither of them wants to be just what they were born to be. Despereaux wants to experience the human world and Chiaroscuro wants to live in the world of light.
I love the way that the author (Kate Dicamillo) interweaves 4 seperate stories into one culminating story. From the start I really did not understand why there 4 mini books but after fininshing the novel it makes perfect sense. You have to be able to sympathize with all four characters and the only way to do that is to know everything that they have been through. You would not want to sympathize with Chiaroscuro the rat simply because he is a rat. However, you might want to sympathize with him when you learn that he is not all that different than Despereaux; neither of them wants to be just what they were born to be. Despereaux wants to experience the human world and Chiaroscuro wants to live in the world of light.
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