The School Library Journal's Top 100 Children's Novels #68
Title: The High King (# 5 in The Chronicles of Prydain)
Author: Lloyd Alexander
Genre: Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy
The Recipe: In the final chapter of The Chronicles of Prydain, Taran and his friends fight the final battle to stop the evil Arawn, but at great cost.
The Frosting and Sprinkles: The High King is your typical end to an epic fairy tale- great battles, great losses, and great honor. It does not disappoint as far as epic battles and epic endings go.
The last chapter was my favorite. If you've read my reviews before, you know I love redemptive themes and redemptive stories and there is a great and unexpected one at the end of this saga.
The Hair That Fell Into the Batter: I didn't enjoy this novel as much as the previous ones. Sometimes I get bored during battle scenes, but that's just my personal taste. I also didn't enjoy the message of this book as much as the others.
My Rating:
3 out of 5 Cupcakes!
Posts
Just out of curiosity what about its message didn't work for you?
ReplyDeleteI like this one because it is a story about how nobility of birth is not as important or powerful as nobility of spirit. Like Dumbledore says at the end of Goblet of Fire, "It is not what a person is born that matters but what he chooses to become." (paraphrased) I love this because it builds on Taran Wanderer where Taran went from wanting to be a noble born hero to learning to be content with who he was. Here he learns that being himself makes him a hero.
Plus he gets the girl, which is always a good note to end on.
I sent you an email response. :-)
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