Customer Reviews

Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

5 star:		(285)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Kate Dicamllo has triumphed again, writing what I consider her best book yet, "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane." I read it in about an hour and sat crying over the last chapter. The tears were happy tears, though, and the ending very satisfying. The story revolves around the character of Edward Tulane, a vain china rabbit who is loved by his owner but feels no love in return. A misadventure throws him out of his pampered life and into a path of a series of fascinating people, each one more lovely than the last. Edward's heart grows and grows until the question is not can Edward love, but can he love again after the depth of his heartbreak. Dicalmillo has a pared down narrative style that is refreshing and throught-provoking. "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" may be a children's book, but it is never childish. The message about loving and being loved is one that is important for people of all ages.

I have been a fan of Kate DiCamillo since the publication of her last book, The Tale of Despereaux. After reading that book I quickly read her back list and was even more impressed.

In The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane we are given a glimpse of arrogance gone wild. The china doll is made to feel special and is loved so much by his owner that he can't conceive he holds any other position than the center of the universe. Then, in an unexpected event, Edward Tulane is thrust into the depths of despair and only thru the kind acts of others is he taught the meaning of love. His various handlers and owners each contribute to Edwards salvation in small ways.

I found this story to be profoundly touching. I suspect that many grandparents such as myself will find themselves reading this story to our grandchildren. I certainly plan to do so at the earliest opportunity.

Kate DiCamillo is truly a national treasure. I look forward to future stories and the development of her as a great author.

I see a lot of the reviewers liked this book, but few of them commented on how they liked it for their kids. I know the review says 3-6 grade, but we got this as a gift and read it to our 6 year old. His reading level is quite high, so I was pleased with how the book was written. Her language, the way she puts a sentence together, is so lovely and beautiful. As soon as we'd finish one chapter, he'd be clamoring to start the next.

He liked the book, although there were some parts he may not have understood completely. Fine, I accept that. But there were some parts that I thought were a little rough for him, and maybe would have been rough even for a 3-6 grader. Specifically the story line with the abused children struck me as too rough to read as a kids' book in our house. Not that we deny to the kids that there are bad people in this world, but the story line was too hopeless to explain.

At the risk of writing a spoiler, let me say this: from the moment Edward starts his journey, each person's life that he touches is flawed, sometimes severely. And to this end, the happiness he brings into their lives is what is touching. But whereas Edward is redeemed by the end of the book, everyone else is still miserable, or in some cases, worse.

So my final thought is if you like Kate DiCamillo's writing, read this book. It's wonderfully written, and it is, indeed a weeper. But be prepared that if you read it to kids, the dark parts may outweigh the light.

A book that must be approached with caution, but approach you should (ideally with your child in hand). As tempting as it might be to hand it off to a seven year-old, save it to read with an older child. Like other reviewers I read it to my middle-schooler. At times we almost couldn't bear to go on, but its story of loss, love and redemption is too rare in young adult fiction (so much better to read this than a Gossip Girls book!) We both choked up on several occasions, but it's important to teach children the cathartic power of books.

Our family is a fan of "toys with souls" literature, having read Hitty and Rumer Godden and the Meanest Doll in the World. This is a book that moves in a different and challenging direction.

Yes Edward is thoroughly unlikable for much of the book. But we learn that love is not easily won and is to be treasured. Best for an older child 9 and up and with adult guidance.

If this book doesn't bring tears to your eyes, then perhaps you need to make a journey similar to Edward's. With her previous three books Kate DiCamillo had already proven to me, as a reader, that she is a spectacular author. With the attention my students pay to her writing, I can see, as a teacher, her tremendous skill and value to the world of books and reading.

Hands down though, this story is her best yet. The plot is simple enough that my four year old sat entranced as we read the first 50 pages together tonight. It is compelling enough that I had to plow through the remaining 150 pages to get to the end.

This is the kind of book that you clasp to your chest when you finish it and then place reverently on a shelf to await the next reading. It is the kind of book that you will treasure and recommend to others. Don't pass this book by because it sits in the children's section...this book is for everyone.

There is an obvious reason that this book was released on Valentine's Day...the simple theme of love is what drives this story. As DiCamillo puts it: "If you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless." If you are open to falling in love with a china rabbit named Edward Tulane, then pick up this book at once. You will not be disappointed.

The story of Edward Tulane--the arrogant, little china rabbit--is one that every adult should read and have on their shelf for grandchildren, and friends. The lessons this little rabbit learns about life, learning to love and love again, are truly a gift from the author.
The reader is given hope, in the midst of sometimes devastating circumstances, that one can not only love for the first time, but can aquire a depth of love which increases in its gratitude for others.
Watching Edward go through different "owners," acquiring a variety of names (and being humbled in some instances!), and learning the different lessons about love in the process, was absolutely priceless! I don't think I have ever cried so much reading a children's story, as I did when Edward's heart began to ache with love and concern for little Sarah Ruth.

It is destined to become a classic, and I think C.S. Lewis would have loved it!

The artist created wonderful illustrations also--they reminded me of the many old fashioned books of my mother's, which I found as a child and spent hours pouring the pictures.

Edward Tulane is a much-loved china rabbit who belongs to a little girl named Abilene. She dresses him in an extensive wardrobe of expensive clothes and treats him like a best friend. When Abilene and her parents sail for England on the Queen Mary, Edward comes too. However, he is thrown overboard by some very bad boys, and gets caught in a fisherman's net. The fisherman brings the rabbit home to his wife, who treats it much like a child she had lost earlier in life. This is the pattern of the rest of the novel: Edward is loved, but torn away from those who love him. His experiences grow increasingly dark, until at last he is restored to Abilene when she is a grown woman and the mother of her own little girl.

After having thoroughly enjoyed The Tale of Despereaux, I began DiCamillo's newest book with great anticipation. However, I found it to be a grim and depressing story. It bears a strong resemblance to Rachel Field's Hitty: Her First Hundred Years in the sense that it's about a doll (though Edward would hate me for calling him one) who has no control over its fate and is at the mercy of its owners. However, Hitty has many ups and downs in her life. Some of her adventures are quite exciting, and she has many happy years along with the bad. Edward's narrative is full of pathos and unpleasant adults such as Lolly, the "lumpy" woman with too much lipstick, who throws Edward in the garbage; the old lady who nails Edward to a pole in her garden; Sarah Ruth's drunken, abusive father, who broke her last doll's head under his foot; Neal the cook, who smashes Edward's head on a diner counter and in essence kills him; Lucius the doll mender, who repairs Edward only for the money he can make; and even Pellegrina, Abilene's grandmother, who tells the harsh story of a princess who is turned into a warthog and slaughtered by hunters, and who refuses to rescue Edward when he reappears on the streets of Memphis many years later. I had originally intended to give the book to my young niece, but now will not.

I honestly don't think this book is appropriate for young children. Reviewers are targeting readers from grades 2 through 6, but I found it disturbing to read as an adult. The message-that a life without love just isn't worth living-is too sophisticated for young children, and perhaps a bit dangerous for anyone. Near the end of the novel, a doll in Lucius' shop tells Edward, "If you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless. You might as well leap from this shelf right now and let yourself shatter into a million pieces. Get it over with. Get it all over with now." The positive message-"Open your heart [and] someone will come for you"-is overshadowed by the unrelentingly dismal events of the book. Edward is urinated on by a dog, buried in a garbage dump, loved by a dying child, publicly humiliated, and murdered by a cook who wants to be paid for a meal. One of the darkest scenes of the novel-his use as a scarecrow by an old woman-is accompanied by a distressing full-color illustration: Edward is clearly being crucified. He is wired by his hands and feet to a wooden cross, and his rabbit fur ears are nailed above his head. The crows have been pulling at the threads of his clothes, cawing at him and mocking him. Edward, the sun setting behind him and stars appearing overhead, looks as lonely and forsaken as anyone or anything I have ever seen. In another episode, little Sarah Ruth, dying of a respiratory disease, loves Edward passionately when her brother Bryce brings him home. However, she eventually stops eating, begins coughing up blood, and dies in Bryce's arms. A dreadful scene ensues as Bryce and his drunken father struggle over possession of the body, crying and screaming at each other. In yet another dark scene, Edward is murdered by Neal the cook when Bryce cannot pay for a meal. Edward seems to go to heaven, where he finally has wings, Sarah Ruth is a constellation, and all the people who had loved him are happy and content. Of course, Edward isn't even allowed to remain here because when Lucius the doll mender glues all the broken pieces of the rabbit's head together he returns to consciousness and the loneliness and sadness of his earthly life. The only good adults in the book are weak and powerless; the strong ones are cruel and heartless. It has been a long time since I have responded so passionately to a book, but The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is grim, painful, and bleak. I would never read this book to a child, and it seems hard to believe it was originally intended to be a picture book. While the ultimate message-that anyone can learn to love-is a worthy one, it is difficult to discern in the overwhelming misery of Edward's existence and the cruelty of human nature.

I have read the customer reviews and listened to the angry laments of fellow children's book readers. It is too scary for children! Nothing good happens to Edward! Edward is a passive victim in all this--and all good books require an active participant of a protagonist! A little girl dies! And Edward is strung up on a cross, for God's sake!!!

Such drama! I think one of the big problems with adults reviewing children's books is that adults have the issue of always looking for a deeper meaning in a book, and are always looking for hidden dangers, buried psychological landmines that will harm our innocents in the act of reading.

But here's the thing about kids: they have their own minds. They are just as capable of discovering things in a book as are the adults trying to decipher things for them. I'm grateful that as a child devouring books in my public library I wasn't hindered in my choices. I liked sad and terrible things. I was a big fan of the Beany Malone books, which, as time went on, grew darker and darker--yet I read on. I read about Beth's death in Little Women again and again. Suffering, pain, disease, loneliness: it made reading all the more compelling for me as a child. If it made me cry, it made the book live in my memory all the more vividly.

So Edward Tulane has sadness, terrible things, even death. So? For some kids this will be too much, and they'll put it down and not pick it up again. For others, they'll finish the book, think long and hard about it, be tremendously moved by it, and possibly even shed a few tears over it. And then pick it up and read it again.

And as for the whole "crucifixion" controversy: if Edward was crucified, rather than put up to scare crows, what, then, did the pie plates represent? And what about our other beloved scarecrow in literature: Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz? And what of the scarecrows I see now and then in cornfields to this day, each of them nailed to wood in a cross formation? If Edward is a Christ-symbol, then I have to believe that all scarecrows are Christ symbols. And I just don't want to have to do that.

This is a book with lots of sad and terrible things in its pages, yes. Life, one could say, is like a book with lots of sad and terrible things in its pages. Children are not immune from noticing that life can be hard. Children are aware that other children die, that children are poor, that life is unfair. When Bryce ultimately loses Edward because he is a child and because he is poor, children can understand that. They've experienced unfairness in their own lives--or perhaps not, and this can be considered a lesson in life: life's not always fair to the poor. They can feel sad or they can feel annoyed at having this lesson forced down their throat, or they can feel outraged and have, deep within them, the seeds of social activism start to grow. Whatever.

The book is a compelling read, which I believe even its detractors can agree upon. Read it as a story, just the simple story of a china rabbit and his miraculous journey, and not as religious symbology or as a destroyer of children's innocence or as something designed to fool the masses into buying something insidious disquised as a "classic." Read it as though you were a child, with an open mind.

First i have to say I have never left a review before and probably never will again...just not my personality...but i love reading to my kids ages 6 and 8 and this is the best book i've ever read for myself and to them. i loved doing the voices for the characters as i read them. We have read this 3 times now and my girls and i love it. Beautiful sepia illustrations and character description. If you are going to add a single book to your library, make it this one now!

I have just finished reading Edward Tulane, but I will never be finished. I plan on using this magnificent piece of literature in my role as a Storyreader for children. I am so happy that Kate has written a book that most second and third graders will be able to read. "TEACHERS, pick this one up, rehearse it and then read it to your class" This one will be a classic in the tradition of The Velveteen Rabbit, only much better. The way the beautiful words are arranged, the warm feelings expressed, and the craftsmanship of the whole story are simply unforgetable!