The Tale of Despereaux is a book about the power of love and bravery. Despereaux is a little mouse that was born different from other mice. He loved reading books, while other mice nibbled on them. As he was growing up, he soon fell in love with a princess who had lost her mom and was very clever and bright. But loving a human was against the rules of the mice, so he was sent to the dungeon. Meanwhile, a rat named Chiaroscuro hatched an evil plan against the princess. Chiaroscuro forced Mig to be part of it. Mig was a girl whose mother was dead, and her father sold her to a fake uncle who made her almost deaf. Of course Mig hesitated. But because she wanted to be a princess, she was in it. Little Despereaux fought like a knight for the princess, and at the end, they found a happy ending, and the castle was once more full of light and soup, music and beauty. I believe that Despereaux was mistreated by other mice. When Despereaux was born, he was very small and weak. No one understood him. What the other mice saw in their eyes was a dumb, useless creature, who fell in love with a human princess. Maybe Despereaux did break the law. But he was trying to listen to the music of the King while falling in love with the princess. The reason why this book is very satisfying is that little Despereaux became a hero and a knight, although he began as a failure and a mouse sentenced to death. When he tried to tell the king where the princess was, the king did not believe him. So poor little Despereaux did this by himself. He fought with the rats. And he saved the princess. Maybe the fight he had with the rats was not the same as all the battles by knights in fairy tales. But you see, the princess admitted in the end, “Despereaux, you are my knight,” and the little mouse abandoned by everyone he knew became the knight of the gorgeous princess. When I first saw little Despereaux being abandoned for his differences, I felt very sorrowful. I don’t think anyone should be abandoned or treated differently for being different. Little Despereaux was sentenced to the dungeon at a very young age. This was very cruel, and it made me angry. He was hated and about to die, just because he was different. To be honest, I could see myself a little bit when I was watching little Despereaux. It wasn’t like my family abandoned me. No, not at all. But when I moved to the USA, I was treated differently from my friends in my old school. Back in Korea, I was the most popular girl in the whole grade. But because I was in a whole different country, everyone abandoned me and played with me like I was a toy. Despereaux had reasons for what he was doing. And obviously, I had reasons for being different, too. Both Despereaux and I found our own way to be our own selves. After all, Despereaux is a mouse like all the others in his community, and I am a human like the others in mine. So we shouldn’t have been treated differently. Being different doesn’t mean you are being wrong. The Tale of Despereaux showed that to the readers. I thought it was very touching because once I was in Despereaux’s place. Being a kid who was abandoned by her friends and ended up being a hero, a knight, to them. I think Despereaux was brave for loving who he loved and forever being the knight of who he loved. I hope you can feel the emotion and truth of this story. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. Candlewick Press, 2009. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
A Life Change, a short story by Vaishali Andukuri, 10
Vaishali Andukuri, 10Oakland, NJ A Life Change Vaishali Andukuri, 10 I had a normal life. A slow life, sure…But it was good. I was just a regular 12 year-old who had a standard schedule. I woke up, went to school, came home, played a bit, helped cook dinner, ate it, went to bed and my day was done. Until one day when my life changed. I was going to school, and on the way, I stopped by a small corner shop, to buy water. When I came back from school, I heard the news that there was a virus going around. Something COVID? I didn’t care. Not much comes to our town. I went to watch TV. Apparently some big cities were on something called “quarantine”? Also there were some huge numbers. “The Death Toll” they said it was. I just assumed that it was a bunch of people crying because they got a cold. The next day, I was coughing more than usual. Two days after that, I felt weirdly warm. My mom checked, and said it was a fever. I was sick for a while. It wasn’t too bad. I got “get well” gifts, and my parents took care of me and gave me food in bed. Then one day while I was playing, I got tired. I took a huge breath, and it hurt. Slowly and steadily, my breathing worsened. Then it got so bad that my parents took me to the hospital, where they ran some tests. A doctor came, and took a nose swab. He then took it to the lab. He came back with the results. He looked scared and sad. He said that I was going to be okay, and that my parents would be right there. I was confused. Why would I be worried? Why was my family in a rush to come? I asked him what was going on, and he looked surprised and confused at the same time. “You didn’t figure it out? You have the coronavirus, or SARS- CoV-2.” he explained. I was mortified. “I have a fancy cough?!” I yelled. “Oh trust me, it’s not just for the fancy people. Tons of normal people are contracting the virus.” the doctor replied casually. I did not like this doctor. “What happened to them?” I asked warily. “Oh…. Some died, some got lifelong breathing problems, and some are absolutely fine.” he responded unhappily. Now I was scared. I had probably got it in that shop! I didn’t want to die, so I asked what I could do. He said all I could was wait it out and try to stay alive. I was unhappy, sad, in pain, and exhausted. I couldn’t sleep, and it was horrible staying in the hospital. I wished I had taken the safety precautions. I would have been safe. I was not the first to learn the hard way. Tons of people have ignored the precautions and gotten sick. Some had even died. I got out of the hospital alive, but I had breathing problems. I wish for everyone else to stay safe and not make my mistake again. Before, I had lived an ignorant life. Now I have changed for the better.
Book Club Report: Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
An update from our eighth and ninth Stone Soup Book Club meetings! Over the last two weeks in Book Club we have been discussing Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. We went deep with this heavy, sometimes gruesome story, and managed to have a lot of fun! On our first week with this book, we began by imagining that we were stranded on an island with a group of our friends and we had to create a society that would allow us to live peacefully together. We separated into groups and had a blast picking symbols to represent our societies, a list of original words and definitions to communicate with one another, and a slogan that represented our core values. After this we discussed the many symbols in the book and what we thought they were meant to represent. On our second week we grappled with the core theme of the book–left to our own devices, are humans basically good, or basically evil? Without the various rules and norms that make up society, would we rise to the occasion and create a civilization, or would we descend into savagery? As we discussed, it appears that William Golding does not have a very positive view of humanity! We concluded by splitting into three groups and holding a mock trial for the central characters Jack and Ralph. One group represented Ralph’s point of view, one group represented Jack’s point of view, and one group asked questions and tried to give a fair judgement about who the better leader was. A very heated debate ensued! Note: There is some interesting information about the book and its author, including interviews with William Golding and readings by actors of parts of Lord of the Flies, at the William Golding website. There is also an interesting article about the true story of what happened when a group of boys were shipwrecked on an island in 1965, in the Guardian newspaper. Next week, we will begin discussing The List, by Patricia Forde. After two weeks with that book we will collect more suggestions and vote on our next two books. The Stone Soup Book Club is open to all Stone Soup contributors and subscribers, age 9-13, throughout the summer. We meet every Wednesday at 1pm PST (4pm EST) for one hour via Zoom to discuss our chosen book.
