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
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme.
An age-old rivalry is reluctantly put aside when two young vacationers are lost in the wilderness.
Anthropomorphic—in body if definitely not behavior—Dogg Scout Oscar and pampered Molly Hissleton stray from their separate camps, meet by chance in a trackless magic forest, and almost immediately recognize that their only chance of survival, distasteful as the notion may be, lies in calling a truce. Patterson and Grabenstein really work the notion here that cooperation is better than prejudice founded on ignorance and habit, interspersing explicit exchanges on the topic while casting the squabbling pair with complementary abilities that come out as they face challenges ranging from finding food to escaping such predators as a mountain lion and a pack of vicious “weaselboars.” By the time they cross a wide river (on a raft steered by “Old Jim,” an otter whose homespun utterances are generally cribbed from Mark Twain—an uneasy reference) back to civilization, the two are BFFs. But can that friendship survive the return, with all the social and familial pressures to resume the old enmity? A climactic cage-match–style confrontation before a worked-up multispecies audience provides the answer. In the illustrations (not seen in finished form) López plops wide-eyed animal heads atop clothed, more or less human forms and adds dialogue balloons for punchlines.
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-41156-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
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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