Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: knights

  • The Dragon and Her Boy

    The Dragon and Her Boy

    A cataclysmic upheaval on the streets of London sees Stick, one of the child tumblers who perform to earn a few coins, fall into a tunnel under the street. Sparrow and Spud his friends, along with Mr Punch and Judy are all gone and in his frantic search, Stick comes across a dragon who has been also stuck in the tunnel; a dragon who is in none too happy about being stuck! She unlike Stick has been there a while!

    From the dragon’s perspective Stick looks like he could be her next meal, even if he looks a bit too skinny, but after all she reasons, something is better than nothing. Stick thinks maybe Sparrow and Spud have been eaten by the dragon, but by the time he and the dragon get out of the tunnel, he realizes more kids than just his friends are missing!

    He has the dragon with him, who is every vocal about many things. She gets shot in the foot by guards on the prowl, and as if things are not bad enough, they go on to be terrible, if not worse. One of the other street boys, Turnip-Tom, has a family who farm in the country and so they decide to go there in search of all the children who are missing. People everywhere were blaming the dragon, or dragons, for eating them all. Dragon is not too happy about this but does admit to eating a couple. She really prefers to eat crumpets!

    But as the plot unfolds, it seems that Stick and the dragon have a special connection; he is the only one who can hear her speaking, others believe it is just roaring, which as it turns out, proves to be the one thing that saves him from a plot even more terrible that you could ever imagine.

    In The Dragon and Her Boy, Penny Chrimes has created a fast paced romp through medieval times, old worlde English and all, knights, dragons, hero’s, villains, serious villains along with a heap of fun to return you to time when maybe dragons were for real and knights in shining armour did good deeds, well sometimes.

    One final thing: as the book is written in King Billie’s English there is a dictionary for your use at the end of the book, just so you can understand what they are talking about especially when it gets a little bit tricky to say the least.

  • Little Owl’s Bathtime

    Little Owl’s Bathtime

    Little Owl is creating such a fuss about having a bath. He does not want to stop playing King of the castle with his best friend Hedge, even though it is beginning to get dark. He is very dirty as being a brave knight defending King Hedges Castle in the garden is very dirty work. Mum wants him to come inside and of course, Little Owl does not want to go.

    He comes up with so many reasons why he does not need to come inside for his bath; his Mother comes up with some very excellent reasons why he needs to, such as playing with Puffle! Who is Puffle asks Little Owl? But no matter what enticement is offered bath time is not going well, until a giant invisible penguin comes to play in the bath, bubbles and all.

    Little Owl’s Bathtime is a hugely flamboyant romp around the often challenging evening event of bath time, as it signals the end of a fun filled day that most little people give up with great regret. Little Owl though is not going to give in too easily, because even after he is finally clean and warm with the promise of hot chocolate and marshmallows, he still has to go out and get Hedge and a very special dragon to come inside and get ready for bed.

    Large pages, vibrant illustrations with an oh so very true story line from the creators of the Little Owl series, Deb Gliori and Alison Brown, absolutely captures the chaos of bath time, making a perfect end of day book for little people everywhere and their parents, who are often  happy to have another bath time safely behind them.

  • The Battle

    The Battle

    Edward is facing his very first ever day at Knight school and he is very, very worried. He is expecting to have a day filled with Battles, and as every Knight, big or small knows, the best way to deal with a Battle is to wear all your armour.

    So, Edward puts on his armour, including his helmet and walks ever so slowly to the great hall where the King is to address the new students. When the King asked Edward to introduce himself to the rest of the students, Edwards simply wished he was anywhere else but right there, but found the courage to answer the King, who smiled back at him.

    Ashling Kwok and Cara King have created a wonderful tale of overcoming those first day fears in The Battle, as Edward puts on his very brave face and heads off into a strange new world of possibly dragons, giants and ogres.

    Somehow Edward manages to survive the morning, but when it comes to lunchtime and he has to go outside in the playground, oh, dear me, what terrible things may happen. When an ogre with bright blue hair, called Lucy, sits down next to him, poor Edward does not know what to think or do.

    Then some monsters he recognises from his class want to know if he would like to play hide and seek; maybe this is a trick too he thinks, but when Lucy joins in he realises he really would like someone to play with and joins in as well.

    Captured perfectly in The Battle is the anxiety felt by many small children when they have to face up to going it alone, in new surrounding with new faces and people to meet. The way Edward chooses to overcome his fear of change has been sensitively captured, both through both the text and illustrations, with Edwards cheeks moving from apple red to a more normal colour as he begins to realise all the other monsters there are just like him!

    The Battle is perfect for children who are fearful of change, especially beginning school or undertaking any new experience.

     

  • Norman the Knight Gets a Fright

    Norman the Knight Gets a Fright

    In this gloriously colourful, rhyming text romp across the pages of life as very brave knight, Mark Sperring and Ed Eaves have created a marvellous fun filled read, which will delight the hearts of readers young and old.

    Norman the Brave needs some knaves, that’s helpers in knight language, to help him to be the brave and dashing knight he thinks he should be, so he puts up a sign asking for help to get ready for royal parades and other such knightly duties.

    The list of jobs this brave knight needs to be done go on and on and on, as his socks need to be darned, his pants need to be ironed, his bath needs filling up with pails of water and his armour needs to be cleaned, just to name a few of the jobs he needed done.

    But there came a time when Norman the Brave had to live up to his reputation, when he had to attend a Fearsome Test on his way to the Royal parade ground, which means he has to go through a dark and dangerous forest where dragons appear, as well as brigands and bandits all wanting to chase poor Norman the Brave.

    As it turns out Norman is not quite so brave after all, as he has to call for his helpers to save him and after the Fearsome Test, when Norman the Braves pants need to be washed and ironed yet again, perhaps his helpers don’t want to be helpers after all.

    This is a lovely riot of a tale or two, with a careful little message tucked away in the pages about being kind and thoughtful to everyone you meet, and all the people that help you, because if you don’t they may take on a new job offered by a magician!

    Once again a lovely storyline wrapped about with huge, larger than life characters which will make interesting discussion points, dragons that breathe masses of colourful fire, brigands worthy of dark, secret forests and helpers who start out happy and cheerful, but end up looking for another job! And of course a brave and vain knight, who turns out to be not so brave after all!

    Hugely fun to read and enjoy!

  • Sir Scaly Pants and the Dragon Thief

    Sir Scaly Pants and the Dragon Thief

    In this rollicking, funtasticly funny storytale, loosely woven around the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Lancelot in particular, we meet Sir Scaly Pants, a brave and fearsome dragon, who was raised from an egg by a brave and noble Knight.

    He grew up around good deeds and brave undertakings by his Knight, eventually graduating from Knight School. He set off to discover his very own first adventure on his trusty steed Guinevere, earning fame, as well as becoming the Kings new champion. He was truly famous throughout the land for his bravery. That is, until the King was plucked out of his saddle by a fearsome Dragon, who flew off with the King very firmly clutched in his talons!

    Well, what an upset. The Queen was in tears, Sir Scaly Pants was horrified and so he and Guinevere, his trusty and also very brave horse, set out immediately to find where the dastardly Dragon had taken his King, getting lost along the way many times and meeting up with some very, very interesting characters indeed!

    Every hoof print on the journey brought a fresh and new challenge to Guinevere and Sir Scaly Pants, as they charged about the countryside, determined to rescue the King, lurching from one problem and adventure to another, until it comes to a show down between the dastardly Dragon and Sir Scaly Pants.

    What happens next, you may well ask, but to find out you are going to have to read the book, or find a grown up to read it with you!

    This is a wonderful, funny, brightly colourful and fabulous romp across the pages with knights, dragons, adventures, fun and a little lunacy added to the journey, just to keep you guessing and entranced until the final page is reached.

    Adults reading this story to little ones will also find a second tier of enjoyment woven throughout the story, which will make the children ask, why you are laughing so much!

    Sir Scaly Pants and the Dragon Thief will definitely become a firm favourite for any time of the day.

    Tremendous fun!

  • The Moonshine Dragon

    The Moonshine Dragon

    If you are after a wonderful bedtime story, or just a wonderful short story to enthrall, then this is the ticket. The Little Gems series really lives up to its name. In a small sized, soft backed beautifully illustrated book, imagination and amazement run rife. The size of this book is perfect for small hands to hold and peruse, while the colours and layout add so much to the story.

     The story begins with a young lad called Patrick who is in bed watching the moon shine through his window turning everything silver. “Who could sleep on a night like this?” A book that Patrick had been reading during the day was on the floor, and the pages began to turn, rustling as though a hand were turning them.

     A dragon gradually began emerging from the pages. He was a beautiful dragon, but very tiny. He was quite distressed, as a very noisy, bossy knight on a horse began to emerge from the book. The knight also was very tiny, but determined to chase the dragon. Fortunately the dragon slotted into Patrick’s castle on the floor. The knight thought he must be in the land of giants, and ordered Patrick out of the way, so he could capture the dragon, but Patrick was not afraid, and told him there would be no dragon hunting in HIS room! After a minor scuffle, the knight was vanquished.

     The book is well set out. The text is a good size, with only five to eight lines on a page. Some pages are broken up with delightful snippets of illustrations. A dragon tail here, and a small knight there. The back colour of the pages is cream, which makes the text very easy to read. Some pages contain a half page picture, all the art work is in shades of soft bluish colours, giving a very night time feel without being at all scary.

     Never the less there are problems to be solved. How to get rid of a cranky miniature knight and how, to return a dragon to a safe world, need to be addressed. Using toys in his room, and a good deal of ingenuity, Patrick solves both problems, then hops back into bed and falls asleep. The next morning when he wakes up, his first thought is that he had a dream. But No! There are the toys he used to baffle the knight, still on the floor.

     A beautifully presented fantasy with exciting elements, making it suitable for the most timid of readers. A must for a Christmas stocking.