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A review by verymom
Knight's Castle by Edward Eager
5.0
This book was really, really fun for us. Early on in the story, the children went to see Ivanhoe at the movie theater. By the copyright date, it was probably the version with Elizabeth Taylor. Being unfamiliar with the tale of Ivanhoe, we paused our reading and looked up both the book and the movie. I read the original story on the side, and we all watched a "newer" Ivanhoe movie from 1982.
The kids adored it and watched it twice. This gave us footing to read the rest of Knight's Castle which makes use of (and abuses) the characters from the book & film. Again, Eager engaged us with wit and humor and had my kids laughing. He doesn't write "down" to children, or even really try to write "for" children. He just writes ABOUT children and their stories are imaginative and funny.
This all spawned quite a bit of knight play at our house - they got out their little plastic knights (by TOOB) and built the wooden castle that has been collecting some dust lately, and had several jolly battles. We also dove into the history and lore that surrounds King Richard and Prince John (neither one great guys, honestly, but Prince John was not the utter villain so many stories like to make of him)... this all led to Robin Hood lore as well (as he is a character in Ivanhoe and stars in this book as well), so we watched the greatest Robin Hood movie ever - the one with Errol Flynn, of course!
All in all, this book was the launch point for a lot of organic learning and fun. We're on to "The Time Garden" in the series now, and will be quite put out when we're all through.
The kids adored it and watched it twice. This gave us footing to read the rest of Knight's Castle which makes use of (and abuses) the characters from the book & film. Again, Eager engaged us with wit and humor and had my kids laughing. He doesn't write "down" to children, or even really try to write "for" children. He just writes ABOUT children and their stories are imaginative and funny.
This all spawned quite a bit of knight play at our house - they got out their little plastic knights (by TOOB) and built the wooden castle that has been collecting some dust lately, and had several jolly battles. We also dove into the history and lore that surrounds King Richard and Prince John (neither one great guys, honestly, but Prince John was not the utter villain so many stories like to make of him)... this all led to Robin Hood lore as well (as he is a character in Ivanhoe and stars in this book as well), so we watched the greatest Robin Hood movie ever - the one with Errol Flynn, of course!
All in all, this book was the launch point for a lot of organic learning and fun. We're on to "The Time Garden" in the series now, and will be quite put out when we're all through.