Dear Mrs.Zrihen,
I just finished reading the book called The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Dicamillo, this book was really amazing even though I read over the summer, I wanted to try it out again to experience this adventure all over again because of the characters, setting, plot, conflict, and many other things that I loved about this book. Tis book is a good example of an animal-talking, castle setting, fantasy book because it explains about a brave mouse trying to protect a princess from rats without the help of his family because they think bad of him. A passage that really caught my eye was on Page 25:
“Despereaux did not know it, but he would need, very soon, to be brave himself." and” In the dungeon, there were rats. Large rats. Mean rats.
Despereaux was destined to meet those rats.
Reader, you must know that an interesting fate (sometimes involving rats, sometimes not) awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform"
I picked this passage because it foreshadows the events that might take place in the future of the book involving both mice and rodents, so that can be a good explanation to a reader who maybe is very excited to know what is going to happen next. Also I think his passage is important in the story because it makes the reader realize that Despereaux might have to talk to many humans before the final event.
Before reading this book I used the strategy to skim and scan for text features that might help the reader better understand a certain moment like illustrations or sub headings. Another before reading strategy that I used for this book was to make a prediction of what might happen in the book and later confirm it, for example when I picked the book I predicted that this book might be about a mouse having a journey or adventure that will change his life forever or maybe about a mouse running away because of problems or some argument. When I began to read the book I confirmed my predictions that i did in the past and the one about a journey was correct. Another strategy that I used during reading this book was to use context clues whenever I needed help on a word like indignant means to be unworthy. The genre of this book is Fiction, fantasy because it's about talking animals and a castle with a king, queen, ETC. Also it's because at the front cover you see a mouse with a thread and needles o it will be like if he was having an adventure or a fight which is not real. The characters in this are: Despereaux, Pea, Roscuro, Miggery Sow, King, and Botticelli, Desperaux is the main protagonist because he is the hero, so he is Round and dynamic like Princess Pea, Botticelli, Roscuro, but Botticelli are antagonists. Roscuro is both good and bad because at first he's good, then bad, but good back again. The king is flat and static, but he is kind of important. The foils in the story are the Queen, the rats, the mice, and the people in the castle. The setting of the story is in a castle where the King, Princess, and Queen live, also in the mouse community and the dungeon, i was sunny at the beginning and the end, but in the middle it was gloomy. The social conditions were forlorn because of the no sunshine and no soup policy. The conflict in the story is that when Roscuro got his heart broken by Princess Pea and he captured her, so Despereaux is out to save her, also it's Man vs. Society because it's Despereaux against the mouse community. The tone of the story was curious because the author sounds like if what is going to happen next is going to be exciting. What I felt while reading this book was being excited because the mystery was so intense and you don't how it's all going to end. The theme of this story is that if you are brave you can conquer fear. The topic of this story is braveness because of Despereaux braveness he saved the princess. The moral of this story is that if you are brave you can overcome obstacles. The author’s purpose in writing this book was to entertain people because most fiction books are made to entertain the reader. I think that the point of view of this story is third person and second because sometimes the author talks to the reader and then goes back to talking about the story. I have figured out that the P.O.O of the book is chronological order because it has the clue words next, after, ETC. The author's perspective in this story is bias because it is going to being brave and sticking to one subject.
Some figurative languages that I found was when the author described the kingdom as sunny, happy, exciting, also describing he dungeon as a scary, horrible place to be, another one was the descriptions of Desperaux like a small, big-ear, brave mouse. Last one is describing the king's music. I would rate this book 10 out 10 of because it is very interesting.
I hope you enjoyed my reader's journal.
Sincerely,
Juan 702
