A newly minted knight goes from zero to hero—at least in his own mind.
Young squire Roderick is ready for knightly fame—as soon as he finds a sword he can lift, that is, and can rid himself of a tendency to wail when his horse moves.
Having had more practice in cleaning up pigeon poo and talking to peasants than fencing and jousting, Roderick might seem ill-prepared to join the knights of Doddingford Castle in a quest to recover the stolen fingers of St. Stephen. But it’s those very experiences that get him into rival Froddington Castle and away with the holy digits when his armored compatriots are stymied. Filtered through Roderick’s ever optimistic eyes—and supplemented both by backmatter and by frequent historical side comments labeled “Get Real”—the story affords readers glimpses of martial training, chivalric values, peasant revolts, castle life, King Arthur, medieval torture, the Black Death, and various related topics…not to mention siege warfare when the knights of Froddington follow to recover the revered relics. Once the discovery is made that there are actually 14 holy fingers and three thumbs, news of more missing relics sends Sir Roderick on to further chances for knightly glory. Though the cast here is all white in Horne’s occasional ink-and-wash drawings and composed of conventional comedic types, a Brit-centric closing gallery loosely dubbed “Knight Hall of Fame” does include Wat Tyler, along with Saladin, Joan of Arc, and Gutenberg. Companion title The Long-Lost Secret Diary of the World’s Worst Pirate publishes simultaneously and in the same vein.
A newly minted knight goes from zero to hero—at least in his own mind. (afterword, glossary, timeline) (Historical farce. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63163-137-5
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Jolly Fish Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
The journey is even gently funny—Omakayas’s brother spends much of the year with a porcupine on his head. Charming and...
This third entry in the Birchbark House series takes Omakayas and her family west from their home on the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, away from land the U.S. government has claimed.
Difficulties abound; the unknown landscape is fraught with danger, and they are nearing hostile Bwaanag territory. Omakayas’s family is not only close, but growing: The travelers adopt two young chimookoman (white) orphans along the way. When treachery leaves them starving and alone in a northern Minnesota winter, it will take all of their abilities and love to survive. The heartwarming account of Omakayas’s year of travel explores her changing family relationships and culminates in her first moon, the onset of puberty. It would be understandable if this darkest-yet entry in Erdrich’s response to the Little House books were touched by bitterness, yet this gladdening story details Omakayas’s coming-of-age with appealing optimism.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-029787-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
Epic—in plot, not length—and as wise and wonderful as Gerald Morris’ Arthurian exploits.
Who needs dragons when there are Terrible Lizards to be fought?
Having recklessly boasted to King Arthur and the court that he’d slain 40 dragons, Sir Erec can hardly refuse when Merlin offers him more challenging foes…and so it is that in no time (so to speak), Erec, with bookish Sir Hector, the silent and enigmatic Black Knight, and blustering Sir Bors with his thin but doughty squire, Mel, in tow, are hewing away at fearsome creatures sporting natural armor and weapons every bit as effective as knightly ones. Happily, while all the glorious mashing and bashing leads to awesome feats aplenty—who would suspect that a ravening T. Rex could be decked by a well-placed punch to the jaw?—when the dust settles neither bloodshed nor permanent injury has been dealt to either side. Better yet, not even the stunning revelation that two of the Three Stooges–style bumblers aren’t what they seem (“Anyone else here a girl?”) keeps the questers from developing into a well-knit team capable of repeatedly saving one another’s bacon. Phelan endows the all-white human cast with finely drawn, eloquently expressive faces but otherwise works in a loose, movement-filled style, pitting his clanking crew against an almost nonstop onslaught of toothy monsters in a monochrome mix of single scenes and occasional wordless sequential panels.
Epic—in plot, not length—and as wise and wonderful as Gerald Morris’ Arthurian exploits. (Graphic/fantasy hybrid. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-268623-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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