The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. The rabbit was very pleased with himself, and for good reason: he was owned by a girl named Abilene, who treated him with the utmost care and adored him completely. And then, one day, he was lost. Kate DiCamillo takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman, from the top… Product details and pricing info |
|---|
231 Customer Reviews Posted
- Horror Story
- We made the mistake of buying this book, because we enjoyed the author's "The Tale of Despereaux" and thought it would be comparable. For any child who has loved and lost a stuffed animal, this is a horror story. We always convinced our child that his lost bunny was safe and loved, and this book scribes the worst-case-scenario for what may have happened to his beloved toy. Besides Edward Tulane's horrifying loss over the side of a ship, he is further abused and tortured repeatedly throughout his journey and he is passed from finder-to-finder. These tortures are couched in the story as some sort of "payback" for not loving his original owner enough. (Imagine my son's sorrow at the thought that his lost toy didn't love him?) When we reached the part where a little girl recipient of the found-Edward dies a horrible death (coughing up blood) of apparent TB, my 8-year old son cried for 3 days. That doesn't even mention the little girl's young brother caring for the dying child, while a drunken abusive father leaves them to fend for themselves and starve--the poor brother trying to scrounge up food--my son couldn't even bear to look at the book cover! And he had nightmares! I had kept reading the book, assuming it would get better with a comforting message to make my son feel better...I wish I had not read it! What a shocking and disappointing book. I think this book is NOT appropriate for any younger child, yet written too simply for older readers. I was very sorry that I bought it, and terrified my poor young son with this tale of horror and sorrow.
- 2008-03-06, 5 of 14 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- A Miraculous Lesson
- My children and I have shared many books over the years, however this book is our favorite. The story's setting and Edward's background are hauntingly beautiful and envelope young readers with a light cushion to view some important, sometimes seedy situations that Edward encounters, thus bridging the fairytale with true-life situations. The book touched us in more ways than any other book we have ever shared. It made us smile and cry, but most of all, it reminded us of the importance of feeling for others. Kate DiCamillo's use of a rabbit as the main character was brilliant. A rabbit appeals to both girls and boys and does not carry the preachy ness of a human character. The lessons Edward learns on his journey are invaluable with the greatest lesson being the need to care about others. When the story begins, Edward believes in his false superiority, by the end of his story, he is truly superior in his broken state. This story is relevant to all ages.
- 2008-03-06, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- I did not think I would be a fan
- A little background: I bought this book before I read the reviews posted here. After reading the reviews I was very, very skeptical about giving it to my children. There seemed to be a few camps on poor ol' Edward Tulane -- the "We're cool parents who let our kids know about the darker side of life and they can handle it; and by the way our very advanced 6 year old had no trouble with the vocabulary" group and the "Whoa, this book has a little girl who dies and all sorts of tragedy, who needs that in a kids' book?!" group and the "It was a fantastic, mommy/daughter bonding experience of laughter, tears and all the other stuff you can see on the Lifetime network".
You could probably color me as someone whose kids are not prodigies and tend to like books like Henry Huggins. So Edward Tulane seemed to be a bit much for my kids based upon the reviews. We read the Spiderwick Chronicles and my son was too spooked to go to the movie, okay?
Then we read Edward Tulane together. I homeschool our two 8yr olds and chose this as one of our readers.
In my opinion the vocabulary at the beginning of the book is a bit indulgently, um, indulgent? Does that make sense? It doesn't quite border on purple prose, but the first couple of chapters are so laden with advanced vocab that young readers, especially oral readers may get turned off. Fortunately just when the story is getting really dull, there's a nice color illustration of a dog and a recently urinated-upon tablecloth that will lighten the mood.
After the first two chapters, the story pace picks up considerably (I imagine some of that may be deliberate as we journey with Edward from his selfish, boring life into a more selfless, exciting one). The great news is, the flowery vocab becomes a little more toned down to the point of simply being words my chidren have heard in conversation but had not yet encountered on a spelling list.
I have to admit I cringed whenever something a bit scary happened to Edward. He does experience some pretty seriously depressing events! Edward is lost at sea & on the ocean floor for years, experiences love and loss many times, left in a landfill, tied up as a scarecrow, has his head smashed in. Fortunately my children enjoyed the story so, that they focused on "what was going to happen next" rather than on Edward's current state. At the end of every chapter I stopped to discuss ways in which Edward was growing, how he was changing. It made me feel like I was doing something to keep their focus on the heart of the book, but mostly they just wanted to find out about Edward's next adventure. However, as the book went on, my kids could easily tell me, specifically, how Edward had changed from his self-centered ways, to learning about love.
The point it became clear the book was a hit was the morning my kids both pulled stuffed rabbits out of their closets to sit next to them for reading class that day...my daughter even dressed hers like "Susanna".
This was the first time my children have eagerly tried to page ahead in a book to find out what happens at the end. They were both delighted with the ending.
All in all, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane was a success with our family. I'm the most begrudging of fans; but we did like it very much. - 2008-03-06, 3 of 3 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
- This book was fantastic for my 8 year old son. It was a bit advanced for his reading level but the storyline was so engrossing and exciting, it made him want to read more and tackle the harder vocabulary used. I would recommend this book to anyone at this age level. We loved it so much that we came back and bought copies to give as gifts! We also purchased Despereaux by the same author, Kate DiCamillo, and this is another book that I would highly recommend.
- 2008-03-01, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Wonderful Story
- As a teacher, I recommend this book to my class every year. It is a beautiful story of a rabbit that goes on an unexpected journey and learns that life isn't about having things and being beautiful, but it's about people and connections to other human beings.
- 2008-02-27, 0 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
