The Tale of Despereaux - Kate Dicamillo

The Tale of Despereaux is a story about mice, rats, kings, princesses, and soup. It's about characters who don't fit in their expected roles but ultimately find a way to accommodate. This book would be great for bedtime reading to kids not quite ready to read themselves. The chapters are short and make plenty of convenient stopping points. The good is good and the evil is evil, but not so graphic that little kids couldn't understand and learn some lessons from the story. Highly recommended.