‘Tale of Despereaux’: Small mouse, big dreams

“No ... ,” said Despereaux. “It’s something else. It sounds like ... um ... honey.”

“You might have big ears,” said Toulèse, “but they’re not attached right to your brain. You don’t hear honey. You smell honey. When there’s honey to smell. Which there isn’t.”

“Son!” barked Despereaux’s father. “Snap to it. Get your head out of the clouds and hunt for crumbs.”

“Please,” said his mother, “look for the crumbs. Eat them to make your mama happy. You are such the skinny mouse. You are a disappointment to your mama.”

“Sorry,” said Despereaux. He lowered his head and sniffed the castle floor.

But, reader, he was not smelling. He was listening, with his big ears, to the sweet sound that no other mouse seemed to hear.

Chapter three: Once upon a time
Despereaux’s siblings tried to educate him in the ways of being a mouse. His brother Furlough took him on a tour of the castle to demonstrate the art of scurrying.

“Move side to side,” instructed Furlough, scrabbling across the waxed castle floor. “Look over your shoulder all the time, first to the right, then to the left. Don’t stop for anything.”

But Despereaux wasn’t listening to Furlough. He was staring at the light pouring in through the stained-glass windows of the castle. He stood on his hind legs and held his handkerchief over his heart and stared up, up, up into the brilliant light.

“Furlough,” he said, “what is this thing? What are all these colors? Are we in heaven?”

Excerpted from “The Tale of Despereaux.” Text copyright © 2003 Kate DiCamillo. Illustrations copyright © 2003 Timothy Basil Ering. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

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