Join Despereaux on adventure to save Princess Pea from mangy rats. This book is divided into four section and told from multiple different characters point of view. The leveling system is The Lexile, reading level 670L. Students can practice their writing skills by writing a letter of encouragement to Despereaux.

The Tale of Despereaux is a level U in the Fountas and Pinnell reading level scale.The Tale of Despereaux is about a mouse named Despereaux Tilling. He sets out on an adventure to save a HUMAN princess named Pea from the rats. The book is split into four separate "books", and each book takes place in a different character's point of view. I remember reading this book when I was in 5th grade as a shared reading, and I remember enjoying it. However, it was not the most memorable book for me personally. What you could do in the classroom (maybe) is have this as a literature circle book and give different groups different "books" in the Tale of Despereaux. Once everyone has met with their literacy circle groups, one role could be the Shimmery Sharer and they could share what happened from that character's point of view and what they came up with in their literacy group. Other than that, I would like to have it in the classroom as a free reading book for my students.

Lexile Level: 670L

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo is a wonderful chapter book about a mouse named Desperaux who lives in a castle. Desperaux has several traits that make him different from the other mice in the castle. He loves to read and has a curious nature that leads to conflicts with the other mice. Students would enjoy the exciting plot of this book and may identify with the misunderstood  protagonist. The Tale of Despereaux could be used to teach several different reading concepts as it features many well developed characters and literary themes. This book would be a great chapter book for upper elementary students to read independently as it is such an enjoyable story and so full of adventure. This book could also be used in guided reading exercises as it could provide students with opportunities to learn many vocabulary words in context and to explore literary themes and symbolism.

Just so lovely. Lots of children's books have magic in them, and many have talking, clothes-wearing animals of all species hanging out together like it's no big. But this one actually feels magical, full of awe and wonder at fairly mundane events. And so pretty.

Library copy

I'm coming to realize I don't like Kate DiCamillo, and I don't think either of her winning books are Newbery worthy.

The Tale of Despereaux is more derivative than innovative and its reliance on stereotypes/cliches is annoying (rats/dark are bad and mice/light are good was the most prevalent). The tale teller is also way too pedantic for my tastes.

Some of the illustrations are pretty good, but they didn't really add to my experience of reading the book. And the deckle edges on the pages made them difficult to turn (especially at the beginning of the book). So all around this was a frustrating read.