New here? Just sign up with Google — your account includes Matilda, our gift book, forever.
The Tale of Despereaux · Garden Heights
Part 5
for The Tale of Despereaux · Part 5 · Chapters 34–40 · Book the Fourth
8 Parts40 min
What Happens in Part 5
Book the Fourth ties the braid. In the dungeon’s dark, the silky voice introduces itself to Mig at last: Roscuro, polite as a courtier, has heard her deepest wish — and has a scheme to grant it. Help him bring Princess Pea down into the dark, and Mig shall be princess in her place. The half-deaf girl, offered her impossible dream, says yes. Despereaux, meanwhile, escapes the dungeon the only way up there is: hidden under the napkin on Gregory’s returning tray. Discovered in the kitchen, he flees for his life — and Mig’s kitchen knife falls, severing his tail. Maimed and hunted, the mouse hides in the pantry among the flour sacks, where he eavesdrops on the whole terrible plan. He dreams of the knight from his beloved story — and in the dream the armor is empty: no knight is coming. Worse follows: down below, Roscuro has chewed through Gregory’s rope, and the old jailer, lost in the maze he kept, is gone. The castle will mourn; the conspirators will move tonight; and the only one who knows — small, tailless, and alone — must decide what a mouse can do about a conspiracy.
What We Will Learn
Section
What you will practice
Vocabulary
Words of the plot: conspiracy, scheme, silky, eavesdrop, sever, mourn…
Literary Elements
Convergence, dramatic irony, and the empty armor as symbol
Cross-Curricular
The truth about rats, and what it costs to know a secret
Chapter Summary
Ch.
What happens
34–36
The Silky Bargain — Roscuro offers Mig her dream: help take the Pea below, and be princess in her place.
37–38
Up on the Tray — Despereaux rides out under the napkin; discovered, he loses his tail to Mig’s knife.
39
The Empty Armor — hiding in the pantry, he overhears the plan — and dreams that no knight is coming.
40
Gregory’s Rope — chewed through by Roscuro; the old jailer is lost to the dark he kept.
Part 1
Vocabulary
Study 10 key words from Chapters 34–40 · Book the Fourth, then answer each question.
🧠Knowledge Bank · Rats: Behind the Reputation
Zoology · The Real Rat The castle’s dread of rats is old and partly earned — they raided grain, gnawed through beams, and history blamed them for spreading plague — but the animal behind the reputation is genuinely remarkable. Rats are rodents of startling intelligence: they solve mazes, remember a route for months, and learn simply by watching one another. Studies have shown that they will free a trapped companion and even share food with the hungry, which means the creatures the castle fears are also capable of loyalty and care. Her rats are the true masters of the dungeon dark, clever enough to keep a hoard of stories and to argue philosophy in the black — and it is precisely that cleverness, bent toward revenge, that makes one of them so frightening. A dull animal could never plot as Roscuro plots; only a mind this sharp can fold its own gifts into a weapon.
Visual AidThe animal behind the reputation
Photograph taken in 2013 of a brown rat crossing leaf litter in a garden. The Knowledge Bank explains that the castle’s dread of rats is old and partly earned, but that the animal behind the reputation is remarkable: rats solve mazes, remember a route for months, learn by watching one another, and will free a trapped companion. Watch how low it keeps its body. A creature that clever spends most of its life trying not to be seen.
Brown rat in a garden, 2013; photograph by trolleway, released under CC0. Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
conspiracyn.Ch.34–39
A secret plan made by plotters together
“A conspiracy took shape in the dark.”
schemen.Ch.34–36
A crafty plan
“Roscuro unfolded his scheme to Mig.”
silkyadj.Ch.34
Smooth, soft, and sliding
“The silky voice knew her name.”
napkinn.Ch.37
A cloth used at meals
“He hid beneath the tray’s napkin.”
severv.Ch.38
To cut off completely
“The knife fell and severed his tail.”
pantryn.Ch.39
A room where food is stored
“He hid among the pantry’s flour sacks.”
eavesdropv.Ch.39
To listen secretly to others
“From hiding, he eavesdropped on the plan.”
armorn.Ch.39
A knight’s protective metal suit
“In the dream, the armor stood empty.”
mournv.Ch.40
To feel and show sorrow for a death
“The castle would mourn its jailer.”
betrayv.Ch.34–40
To break faith with someone
“The plan would betray the trusting Pea.”
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
🧠Knowledge Bank question
1According to the Knowledge Bank, studies have shown that rats will ___.Ch.34–39
2A ‘silky’ voice is rough, loud, and grating.Ch.34
3To cut something off completely is to ___ it.Ch.38
4To ‘eavesdrop’ is to listen secretly to others.Ch.39
5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.34–37
Word choices:schemenapkinsilkypantry- some words will not be used
Roscuro unfolded his to the serving girl.
Despereaux hid beneath the tray’s .
6A room where food is stored is a ___.Ch.39
7To ‘mourn’ is to celebrate a happy arrival.Ch.40
8A knight’s protective metal suit is his ___.Ch.39
9Fill in the blanks with the correct words.Ch.38–40
Word choices:mournsevereavesdropconspiracy- some words will not be used
The knife fell to the little tail.
The castle would soon its old jailer.
10To break faith with someone who trusts you is to ___ them.Ch.34–40
Part 2
Comprehension
Show you understood what happens in Chapters 34–40 · Book the Fourth.
🧠Knowledge Bank · The Plot Assembles
Reading Skill · Dramatic Irony In these chapters your task is to watch a conspiracy click together piece by piece, holding every part in mind at once. Track them in order: Roscuro’s dark offer, Mig’s eager yes, the stolen knife, the plan overheard, and the rope to the world above quietly cut. As you gather these, notice something powerful happening to you as a reader — you now know more than any single character inside the story does. Keep one eye, too, on the single creature who understands everything and can do the very least about it — the smallest witness in the castle. Holding every moving piece of a plot in your head at once is hard work, but it is what gives a reader the story’s heaviest gift and burden at the same time — foreknowledge.
Visual AidWhat the reader holds that nobody else does
Diagram for the Knowledge Bank on dramatic irony. The four numbered cards are the pieces the Knowledge Bank asks you to track, and every arrow carries them into the reader rather than into any character. The card on the right is not a plot event, which is the point. The Knowledge Bank says you now know more than any single character inside the story does.
Dramatic irony as described in the Knowledge Bank. Drawn for Garden Heights Academy.
🧠Knowledge Bank question
1The Knowledge Bank says that as the plot assembles, the reader ends up knowing ___.Ch.34–36
2What must Mig do to earn her wish?Ch.34–36
3Despereaux escapes the dungeon hidden under the napkin on Gregory’s tray.Ch.37
4What happens when Despereaux is discovered in the kitchen?Ch.38
5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapters 34–40. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.34–40
Roscuro chews Gregory’s rope; the jailer is lost.
Roscuro offers Mig the bargain of her dreams.
Hidden in the pantry, he overhears the whole plan.
Mig’s knife severs the fleeing mouse’s tail.
Despereaux rides up from the dungeon under the napkin.
6In Despereaux’s dream, the knight’s armor is empty.Ch.39
7Where does Despereaux hide while he eavesdrops?Ch.39
8How does Roscuro dispose of Gregory?Ch.40
9By Chapter 40, someone has warned the king of the plot.Ch.34–40
10What is Despereaux’s situation as the part ends?Ch.40
Part 3
Literary Elements
Understanding HOW and WHY Kate DiCamillo tells the story across Chapters 34–40 · Book the Fourth.
🧠Knowledge Bank · The Knot Pulls Tight
Author’s Craft · Convergence & SymbolThis is the part where the braid becomes a knot: three long-separate tales — mouse, rat, and girl — finally meet in one kitchen, one pantry, one plan. Writers call this convergence, the moment parallel plots stop running side by side and begin colliding. It hands the reader a strange power, because we now hold every secret at once and must watch the trusting Pea through her plotters’ eyes — the full weight of dramatic irony. At the part’s center stands a single haunting image: the empty armor in the hall, a knight’s hollow shell with no knight inside. It works as a symbol with a double edge, killing one hope even as it plants a better one. There is no knight coming to fill that armor — and so the smallest, least likely creature in the castle must stop waiting to be saved and choose, himself, to become the rescuer.
Convergence
Braided tales meeting at last — mouse, rat, and girl in one kitchen’s shadows.
Dramatic Irony
The reader holds every secret; the trusting Pea holds none — and night is coming.
Symbol: the Empty Armor
No knight inside — rescue is not coming, so the small must put the armor on.
🧠Knowledge Bank question
1According to the Knowledge Bank, convergence is the moment parallel plots ___.Ch.34–40
2Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.34–40
Word choices:dramatic ironysymbolpacingmotif- some words will not be used
Readers knowing the plot the Pea cannot see is .
The knightless suit in the dream is a .
3The empty armor first means despair — and then means ___.Ch.39
4Roscuro hooks Mig with threats rather than with her own wish.Ch.34–36
5Roscuro killing Gregory by chewing a rope — rather than fighting — characterizes his evil as ___.Ch.40
6The severed tail works in the story as ___.Ch.38
7Dramatic irony grows heavier the more the reader knows and the characters do not.Ch.34–40
8Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.34–40
Word choices:convergencedramatic ironythemevoice- some words will not be used
Separate storylines meeting at one point is .
9Mig saying yes to the scheme lands differently than a villain’s yes because ___.Ch.34–36
10Ending the part with Gregory’s death and the plot unwarned sets Book Four’s stakes as ___.Ch.40
Part 4
Think Deeper
Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.
🧠Knowledge Bank · Hooks and Threads
Think Deeper · Cruelty & Manipulation Roscuro’s plan is a lesson in how manipulation really works: it never invents a person’s desire, it only finds the desire already there and pulls hard on it. He does not force Mig; he offers her the one thing she has ached for since childhood — to be a princess — and then lets her own longing do the rest. Each creature he uses is caught by its deepest want, and his cruelty travels along cut threads: the severed rope, the broken trust, the bond snipped between people who should have protected one another. Mig is guilty of terrible choices, yet she is also a tool shaped by everyone who ever struck her, and Roscuro knows precisely how to press that old wound. The part asks you to see how evil rarely needs monsters; it needs only a clever mind willing to turn another creature’s honest hunger into a trap.
Think back over the gathering dark. A silky voice offers a half-deaf girl the only thing she has ever wanted, and she says yes. A mouse rides up into the light under a napkin and leaves his tail behind under a knife. In a pantry’s flour-dust he hears the night’s plan laid out complete, then dreams of the story that raised him — and finds the armor empty. Below, an old man’s rope parts under patient teeth. The knot is tied. Tonight it pulls.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1Claim: “Roscuro’s scheme is built on other creatures’ wishes, not on force.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence
2What Roscuro promises, or What Roscuro intends? Tap each detail to sort it — tap again to switch sides. You can keep tapping to change your answer.Sort into two
◄ What Roscuro promisesWhat Roscuro intends ►
3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect
Roscuro has heard Mig’s deepest wish→
Gregory’s tray must go back upstairs→
A mouse loose in Cook’s kitchen→
A rope is a jailer’s only thread home→
🧠Knowledge Bank question
4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument
The Knowledge Bank says manipulation never invents a person’s desire; it only , and it notes his cruelty travels along .
Part 5
Standardized Test
The Truth About Rats · SAT & TOEFL-style practice
Read the passage — the highlighted words are tested — then answer. Tap an answer, then tap it again to confirm.
SATWords in Context — a word's meaning in this passage
SATDetail — a fact stated in the passage
SATText Connections — how two parts of the text relate
SATCentral Ideas — the passage's main point
TOEFLFactual Information — a fact stated in the passage
TOEFLVocabulary — a tested word's meaning here
The Truth About Rats' Reputation
Few animals carry a darker reputation than the rat. Castles had their reasons: rats raided grain stores, gnawed beams and severed ropes, and thrived in exactly the deep, dark places people feared, and when plague crossed the medieval world, rats and their fleas took much of the blame. To call someone a rat still means someone who will betray you. Medieval households fought back with cats, terriers, traps, and poison, season after season, and never once cleared a castle for good. The reputation is ancient, worldwide, and only half the story.
The animal itself is a marvel. Rats are rodents, gnawing mammals with ever-growing teeth, and among the cleverest creatures tested: they solve mazes, remember safe routes for months, learn tricks from watching one another, and will free a trapped companion before touching food. Much of what looks like wickedness is simply instinct sharpened by intelligence, a talented survivor doing what survivors do. Kept as pets, rats learn their own names, come when they are called, and prefer company to solitude. A storyteller who gives her villain a rat’s body, then, starts with an animal clever enough to choose, which is what makes the choosing matter.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1In the passage, to betray someone is to ___.SAT · Words in Context
2Why did castles have reason to fear rats?TOEFL · Factual Information
3What were rats blamed for when plague crossed the medieval world?TOEFL · Factual Information
4What does calling someone ‘a rat’ still mean?SAT · Detail
5In the passage, “rodents” are ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
6Which of these shows rat intelligence, per the passage?SAT · Detail
7What will a rat do for a trapped companion?TOEFL · Factual Information
8In the passage, to sever a rope is to ___.SAT · Words in Context
9How does the passage connect to Book the Fourth?SAT · Text Connections
10The passage calls the dark reputation ‘only half the story’ because ___.SAT · Central Ideas
Part 6 · Optional
Creative Writing
A bonus challenge to practice your English. Take your time and have fun with it.
About This Section
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 5 “The Empty Armor”
Despereaux dreams that no knight is coming — and understands the armor is waiting for him. Write about a moment, real or imagined, when you realized no one else was coming to fix something — and what it felt like to put the armor on yourself. Write at least 40 words.
You can start with: “I kept waiting for someone bigger to arrive. Then it got quiet, and I understood…”
0 / 40 words minimum
🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 5 Complete!
You finished Chapters 34–40 · Book the Fourth of The Tale of Despereaux.
Here are your auto-graded results:
-
points out of 100
Teach it to someone
The best last step is to teach it. In your own words, explain what happened — retell a favorite scene, teach a character’s big choice, or sum up the main idea for a parent, friend, or classmate. When you can teach it clearly, you truly own it.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Kate DiCamillo. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Kate DiCamillo’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.
SAT® is a registered trademark of College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, these materials. TOEFL® is a registered trademark of ETS. These materials are not endorsed or approved by ETS. Garden Heights is an independent provider of test-style reading practice.
