The Tale of Desperaux

I am a sucker for mouse stories.

I listened to the CD audio version voiced by Graeme Malcolm, who handled the character voices excellently. I especially enjoyed his characterization of Miggery Sow, the poor dumb servant girl with cauliflower ears. I think I smiled every time Mig said "Gaw!". I can imagine Malcolm practicing that "Gaw!" over and over because he got it just right. And the rats' Italian accents were a nice touch, (however I wonder what Dicamillo has against Italians).

In this version, we are addressed as "Dear Listener" rather than the "Dear Reader" of the book. And these asides are as fun as the story itself: "Dear Listener, do you know what perfidy means?" Even a vocabulary obsessed Scrabble fiend like myself had to look it up.I thought I was listening to a children's book!

Several stories are woven together. There is the story of the little mouse with the big ears, Desperaux, who is "such the disappointment" to his French mother and English father. He is so unlike the other mice in his community. He is cast into the dungeon for letting humans touch him, a breach of the rules being a mouse. There is the Princess Pea who lost her mother to a scare from a rat landing in her soup bowl. There is Gregory the jailer (who likes a good story) and Chiaroscuro who, unlike other rats, is obsessed with light. Then there's poor Miggery Sow, who can barely hear, and is generally unfit for any sort of occupation, because her father sold her for a red tablecloth, some cigarettes, and a hen, but who dreams of being a princess.

All the characters dream of being something other than they are, and their desire for this ultimately is their downfall. But in the end, they come to find happiness, perhaps by tempering their dreams with a dose of reality and humility.

This book was a great listen, and might be even better when shared with friends and relatives of all ages. I would especially recommend it for a road trip, perfect for summer vacation.