"Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make… — Kate DiCamillo

Despereaux did not know it, but he would need, very soon, to be brave himself.

There is those hearts, reader, that never mend again once they are broken. Or if they do mend, they heal themselves is a crooked and lopsided way, as if sewn together by a careless craftsman.

Despereaux looked down at the book, and something remarkable happened. The marks on the pages, the "squiggles" as Merlot referred to them, arranged themselves into shapes. The shapes arranged themselves into words, and the words spelled out a delicious and wonderful phrase: ''Once upon a time