Saturday, October 20, 2007

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo


So now I'm all caught up with Kate DiCamillo's novels and I have to say that The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is probably my favorite. It's a beautiful story and like all of her books, it's presented beautifully with amazing illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline.

Edward Tulane is a porcelain rabbit doll that was specially commissioned by Abilene Tulane's grandmother. He's a wonderful doll that has real rabbit fur ears, a gold pocket watch and a whole wardrobe of clothes. Edward admires himself and is quite conceited thinking only of himself. He is loved by Abilene but does not reciprocate that love.

When Abilene's family goes on a cruise Edward is tossed overboard and falls to the bottom of the ocean where he experiences his first emotion aside from selfishness - fear. After spending nearly a year on the ocean floor he is swept into the nets of a fisherman which eventually leads him into the unlikely arms of an elderly woman where he begins to learn the emotion of love. From there, Edward continues his miraculous journey, discovering what love is and learning to cherish the meaning and fragility of human relationships.

Another stellar work by DiCamillo! I'm so happy to have this book in my collection. What I love about DiCamillo's work is that they speak to such a wide audience. There's something in each of her books for everyone and I truly enjoyed this one.

Update: Here are a couple of other great reviews of this book. Becky has a very thorough review that I enjoyed reading, and Carl also has a review of this one that I read some time ago that made me instantly want to pick this one up. I'm glad I finally did!

13 comments:

Becky said...

I love this one. I absolutely love it. You can read my very very long review of it here: http://blbooks.blogspot.com/2007/02/miraculous-journey-of-edward-tulane.html

chrisa511 said...

Becky, Oh yay! I love very long reviews :) I could've gone on forever on this one too, but I would've just given everything away which I started to do...so I shutup :p

DesLily said...

well i can see this one goes on the wish list! I thought about it but the best i can do for now is "ye ol' wish list" lol..

chrisa511 said...

Deslily, I know all to well about "ye ol' wish list"...my amazon wish list has about 150 books on it at the moment. It's horrible...and it grows daily! This one is definitely deserving of your wishlist though. I loved it!

Eva said...

Wow-I hadn't even heard of this author before. Thanks Chris-definitely on the list now!

chrisa511 said...

Eva, DiCamillo's stuff is great. She writes mainly for children, but her books can definitely be enjoyed by readers of all ages.

Ana S. said...

This sounds like such a beautiful book. To the wishlist it goes!

Debi said...

Oh, I really, really need to just break down and buy this! It sounds like a priceless treasure! I reading The Tale of Despereaux to the boys now, and we're all very much enjoying it!

And Chris, I wanted to Thank You profusely for coming by and supporting me during the Readathon! It really helped to keep me going!

chrisa511 said...

Nymeth, It really was beautiful. This is definitely my favorite of hers. The illustrations were gorgeous too. The paintings in the book are frameable.

Debi, Get this one in hardback while it's still available! Definitely one to cherish :)

No problem about coming by your blog! I was having so much fun :) I'd get so excited every time you had a new post up!

Bookfool said...

That sounds wonderful!!! I'll have to see if I remembered to add that one to my wish list. Thanks, Chris, lovely review.

chrisa511 said...

Bookfool, It really is! It's going to be my campaign this year to get everyone to have a copy of this one ;)

Anonymous said...

here you are, catching up with the last dicamillo and here i am, not even having read one! well, all i can say is that when i finally get the chance to buy some books again (i haven't for ages (bar challenges)) dicamillo will be very high on my priority list.

this one sounds beautiful!

chrisa511 said...

JP, It was beautiful and if you're in the market for a DiCamillo I highly recommend that this one is the one you pick up ;) After this one, my second choice is The Tale of Despereaux!