SIR CEDRIC RIDES AGAIN

The little knight whose flamboyant rescue of the fair Matilda was so opulently depicted and charmingly described in Sir Cedric is back with a feisty daughter, who also needs rescuing when she's captured by Arab bandits. This time the rescuer is an apparent wimp, Hubert the Hopeless. Gerrard's wonderfully detailed watercolors of a legendary medieval landscape embellished with lovely decorative borders are somewhat less elegantly decorative here, and his plot is in the same mold as the earlier one. But his adroitly rhyming narrative is as full of sly satire on the British character, ideals and stereotypes as ever. A book to pore over, read aloud, and share with delight.