by Joilene Rasmussen

Created on: October 20, 2008

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate DiCamillo

Edward's gold pocket watch ticked unobtrusively on his left knee. Abilene had wound it for him that morning, as usual, then had gone off to school, as usual, assuring him of her return at three o'clock. Edward didn't care. His heart was as hollow and hard as his china rabbit body.

However, he knew he cut quite a dashing figure in his custom made velvet suits, with his pocket watch poised on his knee, and felt he deserved his place at the family table, where Abilene placed him carefully each evening. Not that the dinner conversation inspired him, exactly. In fact, he felt perpetually bored. Still, Abilene's family were better than no one noticing him.

There was only one person in Edward's life who did not at least pretend to indulge him. That was Pellagrina, Abilene's French grandmother. She had bought the rabbit for Abilene when she was small, and knew, or had learned, that Edward did not love. One night she told Abilene and Edward a story about a princess who did not love, and was killed because of it. Edward thought the story was pointless, yet kept thinking about it, as he lay at night looking at the stars through Abilene's bedroom window.

One day, during a holiday with Abilene's family, Edward met with a change in fortune. Aboard the ship on which they all sailed to England, two mischievous boys got hold of him, and in the midst of their fun, sent him sailing over the rail and into the water. For 297 days and nights, Edward lay at the bottom of the sea, thinking about love, and feeling afraid. At last, kindness found him, and in the net of an old fisherman, he was redeemed. From the fisherman, Laurence, and his wife, Nellie, he learned about love, sorrow, and joy, and became content . . . until another turn of luck landed him in a garbage heap.

The cycle of losing and finding, being lost and found, is repeated many times, until Edward has learned to love and be loved by a string of fascinating and memorable characters. At last, after he has tramped through the South with Bull and Lucy, been rocked in the arms of a dying girl, been in show business with her heartbroken brother, been literally shattered and mended, and set on a shelf for sale . . . after he has given up on love, and has closed his heart to everything but pain and memories . . . he is found yet again, by one whom his heart has called after continually. At last, in a sunny spring garden, in the arms of another small girl, he surrenders to love, and finds his full purpose.

This story is rich in symbolism and truth, is written in simple, picture-driven language, and can be enjoyed by people of many ages. My son, at five, loved Edward in a different way than I did, and I am sure I saw him in a different light than did my grandmother, who insisted Edward's miraculous journey was not one I should take a child on. I just figured she didn't know enough about love.

Edward Tulane is 200 pages long, and has remarkably beautiful illustrations (some are color plates) by Bagram Ibatoulline. It is published by Candlewick Press (Cambridge, Massachusetts), ISBN 076362589-2.

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