I just had to read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. This book seems to be on so many 3rd grade teachers' "Favorite Read Aloud" list. Naturally, I had to read it for myself to see what all the buzz was about. With short chapters, large print and only 198 pages, I was able to zoom through it in just a few hours. It is a story about a little china rabbit, loved by a young girl. She takes him on a trip and he is sadly lost at sea, recovered by a fisherman, and goes through several hardships throughout the rest of the book and eventually finds his happy ending.
The best word I have for this story is "disturbing". I found it harsh, brutal and even depressing. Edward the rabbit, who has been lost several times, is cruelly nailed to a post to serve as a scarecrow and rescued by a boy with an abusive father. The boy's sister dies. Her death was a gruesome description for 3rd graders. I found it sad and dispiriting yet there were no tears on my part, probably because the reader was not given time to learn to love the boy or her sister.
Toward the end of the story, Edward finds his damaged self fixed up and sitting on a shelf in a doll shop, hoping someone will purchase him. But another doll tells him "there's no point in going on" and "You might as well leap from this shelf right now and let yourself shatter into a million pieces." The fact that other teachers, parents and readers do not find this shocking deeply disturbs me.
Thankfully the china rabbit does not end it all and the final 2.5 pages he finds a happy ending. However, there is so much misery throughout most of the story that the reader is left depressed and discouraged. I do not feel that this is a book for 3rd graders and it will not be found in my classroom library.
