Kate DiCamillo is my new most favorite children's book author. I read my daughter's all four of the Mercy Watson books that my library had and they loved them. Who doesn't love a pig that loves toast. Every once in a while my daughter will say, out of the blue, "Mommy, Mercy likes toast with lots of butter." Right before vacation I took the book The Tale of Despereaux out of the library but neglected to take it on vacation with us. When we returned home to stormy weather we headed to the movies and saw a trailer for the movie The Tale of Despereaux. The very next day we started the book. I read the first 119 pages to my children at breakfast Sunday morning - it wound up being a long breakfast.
The book is so well written. Kate DiCamillo talks to the reader throughout the book. She even tells the reader to go look in a dictionary to discover the meaning of one word she has used. It really is a modern day fairy tale. I won't give it all away but I will tell you the complete title and, really, it all makes sense once you read the book:The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread.
I kept returning to the title as we were reading the book and saying - hey - do you think this relates at all to the title?
I guess I'm late on the Kate DiCamillo bandwagon. She also write Because of Winn-Dixie which was also made into a movie. I have not seen it. I don't have that book. I did purchase The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane but heard that it is a sad book. That it ends sad. So, I might read it first to myself before I read it to the kids.
6 comments:
Beth- We LOVE her, too! The Mercy Watson books are fabulous- so funny! You must run out and get "Because of Winn Dixie"- precious! You may want to read it first, though. The movie doesn't even come close... Lori
I've been wanting to read the Tale of Despereaux since we saw the preview at the theater earlier this summer. Now we'll definitely have to get it. I haven't read the Mercy Watson books either and we'll have to try Because of Winn Dixie too. Thanks for the reading suggestions!
Mallory is such a reader that usually it's whatever she is into that we read. Do you home school to Beth? I don't but I was thinking of Lori. My sister "unschools". It's a whole new way of teaching.
Oh, I learned to make paper just by reading different sites on the internet. I made a frame out of wire and a picture frame and use my kitchen sink. I had to buy a blender that is devoted strictly to papermaking. It's fun and I love the end results!
Sherry
Nice reviews, thank you. I'm always on the hunt for great children's books and have recently discovered Bayard and their series of StoryBoxBooks, AdventureBoxBooks and DiscoveryBoxBooks (which has a special focus on teeth!) They have work by acclaimed children's books illustrator Helen Oxenbury appearing in the Storybox series for September. In addition to this, they also have some great activities for rainy days: http://www.storyboxbooks.com/potatoprinting.php, http://www.adventureboxbooks.com/macaroni-picture-frames.php, http://www.discoveryboxbooks.com/skittles.php Enjoy!
wow! I read this blog and then went to the library to get a copy for my kids. It was really great. I am a childrens book author myself. I hope you will check out my book when it comes out in a few weeks. I would love to give you the info if your interested.
Meredith
Hi Meredith. I'd love the info for your book. Always looking for new reads for the kiddos. Thanks for visiting my blog and for your kind words. Beth
Post a Comment