A review by oldwindways
Lexcalibur II: The Word in the Stone by Jerry Holkins

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

While my 6-year-old & 8-year-old had been hesitant to approve this as a bedtime story the first few times I offered it up, they were recently reminded that they had listened to the prequel a couple of years back.  This launched us into a reread of the original Lexcalibur after which we dove headlong into its successor.  The individual poems are relatively short (none of them are more than a page or two, except for the egg trilogy which is 3 pages), so they even jumped in, asking to read some aloud themselves, taking turns.  There were quite a few words they did not immediately recognize, and they may not have found the cadence of the poems right away, but they enjoyed it nonetheless.  I have a feeling we may be returning to this as a bedtime read very soon.

There is something great about getting kids to read silly poetry, and perhaps something even better about getting them to enjoy reading poetry that is not entirely sill, but that they still can get a handle on.

Mike and Jerry had a lot of fun with this book and its prequel and that sense of joy and wonder is channeled through the words and pictures in this slender package.