Thanks for all the wonderful responses, everyone! Here they are:
I read it and it is a great read aloud. It was a few years ago when I was in an
elementary school. I forget how long it took, but it was to 3rd grade.
Skeleton Man is also a great read aloud to 3rd grade.
I'm currently reading it to our 3rd graders, but I can only read about 2 - 3
chapters a week in the alloted time. We haven't yet finished it, but the kids are
really excited about it with the movie coming out soon.
On audio book it is 3.5 hours.
I have been using the audio CDs with 5th grade since September. we listen any where
from 10-20 minutes each week after checkout. The narrator is Graeme Malcolm and he
is fabulous! If you go to Amazon.com and look up the audio book it will give a
length of time. the kids LOVE it.
I have been reading Desperaux to my 3rd grade classes for 4 years now.
They love it and I LOVE reading it aloud. I have developed so many fabulous
voices. I have 40 minute periods each week; I read for 20-25 minutes and then
students check out for 10-15 minutes. I would say it would take at least 15
classes to complete, if you read for 1/2 hour.
We just finished it as our One Book/One School book for the fall semester. I can
report that the 3rd graders were especially loving the book. They had lots of
questions about the symbolism and some of the vocabulary. My faculty said it
sparked some very deep discussions especially about the abuse of Miggery Sow. All
in all, my teachers said that it was the best book we'd read so far and wondered
how we could top it. On Nov. 20, we had an all school family literacy night based
on the book and over half of our kids showed up. It was a packed house.
I think as far as a read aloud, it only took about 3 weeks. Some grade levels went
faster than others because of the discussions.
I have a great teacher's resource that I got from Candlewick Press that I can mail
to you if you want me to. All my teachers have one. Also, look on the Candlewick
Press site for downloads, activities, & free stuff you can ask for. I'm sure they
will send you bookmarks at the very least. And Barnes & Noble has all the movie
tie-in books, as well as a very cute Despereaux stuffed animal.
I have used it several times, most times I do skip some parts, otherwise it takes
too long (also used it in January and with 2 hour delays it really slows thing
down).
The kids usually take my extra copies and try to keep up or read ahead so the
library copies are never on the shelf.
I have also gone to the classroom at bus time and read to students that also seemed
to speed up the process.
I read Despereaux to my third grade class when I was a classroom teacher. They
LOVED it! It took us several weeks to read because I read it for the last 10 min.
of each day.
Rumor has it amongst my 4th gr. teachers is that it is not a good read-a-loud. They
loved the book... but they wouldn't recommend it as a read-aloud. I never read a
whole book to my classes unless it's a picture book. I just like to book talk them
and read a chapter or two so they are begging for more and of course that's when I
say you'll have to read the book to find out more.
Jackie Reeve
Media Specialist, Summerfield School
Neptune, NJ 07753
jreeve@neptune.k12.nj.us<mailto:jreeve@neptune.k12.nj.us>
(732) 776-5405
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