Illustrations

Are pictures really a thousand words? Yep. Since The Tale of Despereaux is aimed at young readers, the illustrations are important. Most kids love to read, but a few too many thousand words, and there goes their attention. The illustrations can engage even very young readers, or kids whose parents are reading the story to them.

The illustrations in The Tale of Despereaux are black and white sketches by Timothy B. Ering. Why black and white? Well, light and darkness are important motifs in the book, and B/W is a good way to convey that.

The illustrations are sparsely spaced throughout the story and are there primarily to introduce readers to characters and what they look like. Older readers often prefer conjuring up the characters' appearances for themselves, but the pictures help younger kids use their imaginations and get more involved in the story. On pages without illustrations, they can still have those vivid pictures in their minds.

In this particular book, some parts of the story are scary, and so are the illustrations. For kids whose parents are reading the book to them, looking at the pictures might be a way to prepare them by emphasizing the make-believe nature of the story.

Let's take a closer look at some of these beautiful drawings.

The Cover

The cover drawing is a little ambiguous. There are some very exciting illustrations of Despereaux in the book—meeting the princess, kidnappings, needle fights—but none of them made the cover. Instead, there's a drawing (in color) of Despereaux dashing across the floor with a red thread around his neck and a huge (to him) needle in his hand. He's got a neutral, maybe determined expression. Looking at this cover illustration, you'd never guess what the book was about, except that it's about a mouse. Shmoop saw the needle and thread and honestly, we're thinking Cinderella's helper.

But maybe it's supposed to be ambiguous; maybe we're supposed to wonder what's going on. Maybe that makes us want to read the book and find out why this mouse is in such a hurry and what he's going to do with that needle. The cover doesn't give us much information, but it beckons the reader to the story.

Our Hero

There's a lot of textual description of Despereaux: he's different, he's tinier than the average mouse, he has huge ears. Like Mickey, right? Nope. One thing the text can't fully put across is that he's just plain adorable. (You wouldn't think it from how his parents are talking about him.) All the illustrations emphasize his small size to convey different things about him:

• The first drawing of newborn Des (he lets us call him that) shows how small he is in relation to the other mice in his family and to the big wide world. Message: He's different.
  
• The drawing of his first encounter with the princess highlights his tiny size compared to humans; it emphasizes his awe in her presence, and it makes us even more amazed at how he believes he can rescue her. Message: He's taking on a huge challenge.
  
• His size compared to Botticelli in a later illustration, where Botticelli is leading him into the dungeon, shows how innocent and vulnerable he is. What can he possibly do to survive down there? He looks like he's completely at the big rat's mercy. Message: He's putting himself in great danger to be loyal to his cause.
  
• A drawing in the penultimate chapter (great word—it means next-to-last) shows him holding Roscuro, who's five times his size, at needle-point. Message: This is one brave mouse.
  
• The illustration in the last chapter shows the tiny mouse dwarfed by the king and princess who gaze lovingly at him. Message: He's now safe, protected, and enveloped in love.