This Newbery Medal winner is ultimately a tale about love, as well as loss, forgiveness, hope… It is a story featuring a mouse, a princess, a rat and a serving girl; and is about the mouse’s love for the princess, the serving girl’s wishes and dreams and the rat’s longing for light, and how all of these characters’ lives intersect. The story is told from an omniscient narrator who often breaks the fourth wall to speak to the reader. For the benefit of the intended audience (children 9-12), for instance, the narrator will at times ask if the meaning of a particular word has been understood and proceed to elaborate. There are moments that the author asks the reader to imagine a character in a particular situation. This is a wonderful device to help children picture stories. In the end the author paints a vivid world with beautifully fleshed out characters. Suspense is built by following each character individually with reminders that the characters will eventually meet. The author also points out time shifts in the story (yet another way for children to adjust to this form of storytelling). Also, the black and white illustrations are delightfully expressive. A fairy tale for the romantic in all of us.
Note: Things that didn’t bother me but apparently bothered others: (1) In the story, there are parents portrayed as abandoning and condemning their children to death. This may not be appropriate for younger children; (2) Some think that the author is too heavy-handed in “telling” children how to feel. I believe that this is just an effective way to teach children how to read and imagine stories; (3) A number of people (both children and adults) were unimpressed with the serving girl portion of the story. Most likely this is because since the serving girl is dim-witted (even the author admits this), she is very hard to relate to.
