Description: DiCamillo's Newbery Medal-winning and #1 "New York Times"-bestselling tale is now an animated feature film from Universal Pictures, scheduled for theatrical release on December 19th. This novelilzation includes an 8-page, full-color photo insert.

Children's Literature Review: We have now come full circle with Kate DiCamillo's The Tale of Despereaux. We have a movie based on a (wonderful) original novel and a novelization based on the recently-released movie. In short, we have a book based on a movie based on a book. The result is a highly-simplified version of Kate DiCamillo's superbly-detailed story. Events are slightly rearranged in this version, and one assumes this is to match the movie's order of events. The reading level is lower than the original, and that book's vivid imagery has been lost. Also missing are emotional connections to characters, due to a lack of character development that would be required for readers to truly invest in them. This novel assumes one has already seen the movie and is therefore already invested in the tale. While the movie will hopefully send readers looking for the book, let us hope they will find the original and skip this unnecessary and considerably lesser version.