Frances Perretti Dr.

Burke EDUC 414 November 5, 2013 Low Stakes Writing: The Tale of Despereaux The Tale of Despereaux is considered a modern fantasy because it contains elements that violate the natural and physical laws of our world. The humans communicate with rats and mice, and a giant lives in the basement of a kings palace. For a talking animal story to succeed, it needs to exist in a world different from our own, which is often an appealing factor in its self. It is exciting for the reader to discover a new world. Likewise, very young children do not see animals as other; they believe that animals have human characteristics and can easily accept them as the protagonist of a story. Animal characters can convey ideas by analogy, ideas which have greater impact than if child characters are used. I do not think this novel would be as effective if all the characters were human. It gives a new twist to a story that may have sounded too familiar with an all human cast if characters.