Description: The literary classic about a mouse in love with adventure is coming to the big screen on December 19th, in a new animated film from Universal Pictures and Larger Than Life Productions. This reader retells the story from the film. Full color.

Children's Literature Review: Despereaux Tiling is an unusual mouse with no interest in running from cats or humans and a passion to read and be a hero. He is sentenced to the rat-filled dungeon after he is caught reading, at which point the book switches gears and describes how Roscuro the rat came to inhabit the dungeon. Again, the book picks up with Despereaux's quest to save Princess Pea. This early reader based on the movie screenplay, based on the original book, may intrigue young readers that have seen the movie. However, there are several words that will be difficult for them to pronounce and understand. Also, the plot line jumps and hops and loses the richness of the original and may not lead readers back to the original. The art work is stunning, but the plotline is confusing and overall the vocabulary is not appropriate for the intended audience.