Animals take the lead in these tales
Animals can make charming main characters. Here are some who have exciting adventures that also manage to be heartwarming.
One that succeeds wonderfully on all levels is The Tale of Despereaux (Candlewick Press, $9) by Kate DiCamillo. The title goes on to say “… being the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread,” as disparate a list of ingredients as any story could have and yet each is crucial to the outcome. Despereaux is a very small mouse with very large ears. He seems unable to learn such important mouse skills as scampering and nibbling but, left in the castle library to nibble on a book, he discovers he can read. Enthralled by a story that begins “Once upon a time…” he dreams of being a knight. Then his big ears detect what he calls “honey,” in reality the sound of a flute.
He explores and finds the king playing for the Princess Pea. In the blink of an eye Despereaux is in love and determined to be the princess’s knight errant. Then disaster! For the sin of talking to humans he is banished to the dungeon to live among the rats. But when he uncovers a plot to kidnap the princess, this one small mouse, with courage, some soup and a spool of thread manages to foil one very nasty rat and save the princess. A knight errant indeed.
Part of the charm of this story comes from the author’s storytelling voice. As one example, at critical moments she’ll suddenly exclaim: “Reader, do you think he should do that?” or “Reader, do you understand what ‘perfidy” means?” This refers to Despereaux being captured and marched off to the dungeon by his own brother. Because The Tale of Despereaux has just come out as a movie various tie-ins are available, including a novelization of the screenplay and a pop-up version with excellent visuals but almost no story. The best way to experience the full charm of Despereaux’s adventure is to read aloud the original version as written by Kate DiCamillo.
The main character in The Littlest Sled Dog (Orca Books, $19.95) by Michael Kusugak is a delightful cairn terrier named Igvillu. She has big dreams, fantasizing life as a rescue dog, a retriever or a hunter. Then she goes to live in northern Canada where she sees sled dogs. How magnificent! she thinks. Surely she was meant to be the lead dog! But a scary adventure with the sled dogs convinces Igvillu that she would be happier with a quieter life.
Illustrator Vladyana Krykorka uses swirls of brilliant blues, reds and yellows to capture the spectacular beauty of Igvillu’s new Arctic home. Black and white borders in stylized Inuit designs show daily life in the Arctic and add one more layer to the story of a feisty little dog.
It’s a long step from the frozen white Arctic to the muddy trenches of World War I France where we find our next hero, A Bear In War (Orca Books, $19.95, written by Stephanie Innes and Harry Endrulat, illustrated by Brian Deines). Teddy is a small, stuffed toy much loved by 10-year-old Aileen. The whole family is sad when Aileen’s father enlists and is sent overseas. They are even sadder to read his letters describing the cold and miserable life the soldiers are suffering in the trenches. Just before Christmas, as the family packs a gift box to send overseas, Aileen decides to tuck Teddy in among the treats in the hope that the little bear will remind Daddy of home. From then on Teddy watches the war from Daddy’s uniform pocket, and that’s where he is found after Daddy is killed at Passchendaele. When he is sent back home, he has Daddy’s war medals with him.
Nearly 90 years after the battle of Passchendaele, this true story was pieced together by Stephanie Innes, who found a briefcase containing her great-grandfather’s letters along with his medals and a little stuffed bear. Teddy has now found a permanent home in a glass display case at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, a tattered testament to one family’s struggles and sorrow.
The hero of Out of the Deeps (Orca Books, $19.95) by Anne Laurel Carter is a half-blind pit pony called Nelson, who works far underground hauling coal out of a Cape Breton mine. On this particular day Nelson is assigned to a rookie miner, 12-year-old Savino. The story takes us through a typical day “in the deeps” as, for the first time, Savino clips on his safety lamp, rides the small rail car to the underground stables to get his pony and begins to learn how to dig coal. His apprehension builds as he sees the maze of tunnels leading off in all directions. What if he gets lost? Then comes the moment where Savino has to take a load of coal to the top by himself. Terrified when his lamp goes out, he discovers just how trustworthy and clever the pit ponies are. Illustrator Nicolas Debon uses shades of browns and greys to create the miners’ underground world. But its gloom is dispelled at just the right moment by a gleam of life-saving light.
