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DiscountDelight - The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
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List Price: $18.99
Our Price: $7.96
Your Save: $ 11.03 ( 58% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Candlewick
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780763625894
ISBN: 0763625892
Label: Candlewick
Manufacturer: Candlewick
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 228
Publication Date: 2006-02-14
Publisher: Candlewick
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Release Date: 2006-02-14
Studio: Candlewick
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Truly Wonderful
Comment: I am a 2nd grade teacher and bought this book in early April. I read it and thought it was truly delightful. I decided to read the first 2 chapters to my 2nd grade students. Thy begged for more. We read it, discussed it, finished it and they sighed and asked me to read it again. I have read some reviews that worry about the violence in the bookl. I guess since my students live lives comparable to Bryce and Sarah Ruth they could empathize quite a bit. We have read it 3 times in all and they insist that they love it more each time. The illustrations are captivating and beautiful. My students usually do not like read aloud books that have so few pictures, but as one of my students stated, "These pictures are special and you don't mind waiting to see them." They did see the parallels of the "cruxifiction" of Edward, but were not bothered at all by it- they empathized with the pain the bunny must have felt but it made them love Bryce even more for rescuing Edward. I absolutely love this book and will continue to read it aloud to my future students.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: The Velveteen Rabbit as imagined by Anne Rice
Comment: A lot of these reviews have started the same way I want to start mine, by saying that I really have enjoyed DiCamillo's other books (Well, Mercy Watson was a piffle, but it was fine for what it was). Winn Dixie is a personal favorite. This book, however, is troubling. The illustrations and book design are fabulous, comforting, and inviting; the story moves along at a good pace and the language is strong and visual. All other aspects are brutal, bizarre, and disturbing.
I am writing this review in a way to settle the book in my mind before discussing it with a group of students at my library. I want to see what the target audience thinks. Adults seem to either hate it or love it.
My first problem with the book is that I am not sure children will feel any kinship with Edward. What child needs to learn to love? Love and devotion are emotions kids demonstrate early in life. They love their parents, their friends, their toys...it's only when they grow up that society tells them love is complex and has to be earned or learned. Why does Edward have to be tossed off an ocean liner, buried under garbage, crucified, and have his head shattered to "learn to love"?
Second problem: what is up with Grandma Pellegrina? Everyone else treats Edward like the toy he is. His owners and friends talk to him, but they don't seem to expect a response. No one else sees his self-involvement and lack of feelings (these are only apparent in his thoughts since he doesn't talk). Pellegrina who "was responsible for Edward's existence" seems to know his mind. "You disappoint me" she whispers to him. Is she God? Edward certainly becomes a Christ figure when he's nailed up to scare the crows. Pellegrina also says there can be no happy ending without love--Edward gets his happy ending after being chewed up and spit out by "life." So Pellegrina's words are reinforced by the book as a whole. If she is God she is a frightfully Deistic and cold version of the creator.
At first I thought this was like "The Mouse and his Child" by Hoban or "Hitty, Her First Hundred Years" by Field (in fact some say, Hitty makes an appearance at THIS book's end) but I think it has more in common with Peter Pan, another book that really doesn't fit in a child's world (Children aren't like Peter, they desperately want to grow up as quickly as possible)...this is a pointed and manipulative story created to make adults feel nostalgic for their childhood.
I also have a little trouble believing that Sarah Ruth's doll can shatter so easily and Edward can smash into the ocean from the deck of the Queen Mary, remain unbroken under mounds of garbage, and survive being kicked from a moving train...but I suppose that's a little thing.
If Anne Rice had written "The Velveteen Rabbit" ... I think this is near to what she would have come up with.
Customer Rating:
Summary: If toys had feelings and could talk.........
Comment: I picked up this book at the library this afternoon, after seeing it on a few "must-read" book lists. It took me all of an hour or so to read and wow, this book packs a punch that you are likely to remember for quite some time.
Edward Tulane is a special rabbit....a porcelain one made especially for Abilene, a young girl. He has the finest silk clothes, his own bed, and even a small, golden pocket watch. Abilene loves him very much, but Edward is conceited and doesn't seem to realize how good he has it as the pampered plaything of a well-to-do little girl.
That is, until he is lost and bounces from home to home, from one life to the next, as the book progresses. Edward learns about love and loss and why hope is always important, even when it seems like it may be useless. The ending of the book had me in tears.
As a reader, it made me think about the toys that I had when I was young, especially one in particular that I, like Abilene in the book, carried around constantly. What if that toy really could talk or have feelings? What would it have said? This book reminded me of the velveteen rabbit, but it moves beyond the strict confines of that story and moves out into the world, where our rabbit, Edward (please don't call him a bunny) learns the very valuable lessons of love and loss, desperation and hope. I'm sure it is going to be a book that is, like Edward, treasured by many.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A disappointed fan
Comment: Don't be fooled by the short chapters and large type. This is not a book for small children. My 11-year-old liked it, and read it in about 15 minutes, but for my 4-year-old, who gets books like this in one or two chapter doses before bed, this book is far too dark. "That's so sad," she would say. "Oh, poor Edward." I should have read this book on my own first, but as a fan of her previous work, I trusted this author (and the glowing reviews.) Edward suffers loss after loss, including the tragic death of a four-year-old girl. (Like I said, I should have read it first. Definitely not bed-time reading.) The writing is beautiful, but I question the message of oh so heavy suffering, as Edward waits years and years for redemption. One of the illustrations -- lovely paintings, really -- has Edward nailed to what looks like a cross! No kidding. I thought, maybe, after coming down, we'd see some hope. But no, he suffers more. There is no joy in this book unitl the final chapter. This is a book, then, to be read in a single sitting, not over the course of several nights.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Really pulls at your heart strings
Comment: Once again, Ms. Dicamillo's talent for making gentle but touching stories surfaces. In this book, Edward Tulane learns the lesson of loving what you have. I found this both touching and yet a great story. Ms. Dicamillo doesn't destroy the story by putting a meaning into it like some books. This is a trully miraculous book!
The only thing is, this might be boring to action-story readers >.< But of course, I don't have a problem with this.
A great read that'll touch your heart and leave an imprint for ever!
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Editorial Reviews:
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A timeless tale by the incomparable Kate DiCamillo, complete with stunning full-color plates by Bagram Ibatoulline, honors the enduring power of love.
"Someone will come for you, but first you must open your heart. . . ."
Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. The rabbit was very pleased with himself, and for good reason: he was owned by a girl named Abilene, who treated him with the utmost care and adored him completely.
And then, one day, he was lost.
Kate DiCamillo takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman, from the top of a garbage heap to the fireside of a hoboes' camp, from the bedside of an ailing child to the bustling streets of Memphis. And along the way, we are shown a true miracle — that even a heart of the most breakable kind can learn to love, to lose, and to love again.
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