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Booktalking Colorado Full Record:
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Title: |
Sword of the Rightful King |
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Author: |
Yolen, Jane |
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Date Published: |
2003 |
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Genre: |
Medieval Fiction |
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Grade Level: |
5 |
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Booktalker: |
Cathy Genato |
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Booktalk:
Books about King Arthur have been some of my favorites since I was your age or younger. Even though most of them are pretty much the same, I still love them, but it takes a special one to get my attention. One of them was Mists of Avalon … it made me cry even though I knew Arthur would be killed in the end.
Sword of the Rightful King by Jane Yolen is one of the best King Arthur stories that I’ve read. This story is a little different than the usual young boy pulls a sword out of the stone & is proclaimed king.
In this book, Arthur is already king, but everyone doesn’t agree that he has the right to be. So Merlin puts the sword in the stone & has it proclaimed that anyone who can pull it out is the true king … & of course, in the end, Arthur does.
But what I really liked about this book was Merlin’s assistant Gawen – a 12 or 13-year-old who shows up one day & Merlin takes him on as an apprentice. This Gawen seems like he comes from a well-to-do family, but there’s some kind of mystery about him & why he doesn’t like the knight Gawaine. Gawaine’s mother is the evil Morgause, who is Merlin’s enemy.
Gawen finally reveals that his sister had been in love with Gawaine, who broke her heart, so Gawen has come to court to become a knight & avenge his sister’s honor. Gawen finds out that Morgause put a spell on Gawaine to end his love for Gawen’s sister, so it wasn’t his fault that her heart was broken.
But, the best thing about this book was the surprise ending, when Gawen reveals an even bigger secret about his identity. Here’s a clue: it has to do with dropping a letter from Gawen’s name.
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