The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - Kate DiCamillo

I have been reading more than I've been writing, but such is the life of a mid-semester-er.  Summer's coming - today was the first t-shirt-and-no-sweater day this year.  I am a cold-weather person, but even I get excited when I feel that first hint of warmth in the air.  It's the same feeling as a good hug, and I always appreciate such changes, even if they also make me sick.

Spring, I mean, not hugs.

Anyway, the book I'm writing about (The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane) has been out since...2006, I think?  I first read it in 2008 - beginning of the new year, actually - and it's become something of a regular event.  When I can handle it, that is.  Reading Edward Tulane is not unlike sitting by your best friend's deathbed.  This is probably why the reviews are mixed...

Edward is a china rabbit - a entitled, pompous china rabbit, that is.  He gets lost one day, and goes through a variety of owners.  Throughout the years, he slowly changes into a toy that cares for his owner(s).  The problem is that if you care for someone and lose them, it hurts.  So Edward not only learns to care/love, but also has to handle separation and loss...many, many times.

Parents have voiced some real issues here.  First is the problem that the toy gets lost and is, at times, mistreated.  Losing a loved toy as a kid sucks, and parents have to lie and say how it'll be found and loved by someone else.  That doesn't always happen to Edward, which is the harsh truth for many lost toys.  Not the best thing for a young kid to find out.

Secondly, the lives of the humans aren't that great.  Abilene, Edward's first owner, has a posh life.  That's all well and good, but becomes a harsh contrast to the two kids living in a shack with an abusive father, or the homeless men riding the trains.  Again, hard truths to learn, and maybe even harder to read it through the eyes of a toy.

I can understand the parents' concerns, but I wonder, if I read it as a child, would I have been bothered?  The toy is lost, yes, but he eventually makes it home.  And while the other characters' lives were tough, it was nothing more than reading, say, Bridge to Terabithia or The Journey of Natty Gann.  So, I doubt the concerns over young readers' emotional endurance.

Honestly, I think the discussion arises because there are multiple messages present in the book.  It's like A Series of Unfortunate Events: there were always jokes present (usually about books and authors) that only adults would get.  But those "inside jokes" didn't take away from the younger readers' enjoyment.

In Edward Tulane, readers get the same lesson as Edward: be open to love.  For young readers, this is something mostly unprecedented.  They can see that Edward opens up and cares about people, and that he experiences loss, but they're seeing it vicariously: they don't have the years on them to really understand.

Adults, on the other hand...we get it.  Edward, in the beginning, is hard.  He doesn't get hurt, because he doesn't care about anyone but himself.  When he starts to care, he also starts to hurt, and he tries to distance himself.  But he keeps hoping, and eventually is rewarded.  It's the most basic love story - that of friendship and loyalty and protection.  And when reading it, we remember various losses.  And we know.

I hate that parents don't want their kids to read Edward Tulane.  It's books like this that I treasure the most: the ones that have different meanings at different times in your life.  Even though I didn't read it as a kid, I know what my reaction would've been.  I would've been concerned about Edward, hoping he found his way home, and that his friends and previous owners all lived "happily ever after."

But as an adult, I get what Edward's lesson is: don't be afraid to care, and don't ever stop loving.