Kevin Crossley-Holland

A young boy sees his namesake in a mirror, living in Wales, in 1199.

The Seeing Stone

Arthur

Kirsten Simkiss

This book is exceedingly slow and simple. It follows the story of a boy named Arthur who may or may not be destined to be a king. The ending really implies you need to read the next book to see what happens to Arthur, with no real overarching conflict in the first novel. This book as a standalone is more about the daily life of the son of a lord in the year 1199 as told from the perspective of a boy named Arthur. It isn't, after all, about a boy who is in fact a young King Arthur - at least not as far as I could tell from the first book of the three in the series. The stories of King Arthur are supposed to be an adventure. This book is not so much an adventure as much as it is historical exploration of the time period. If you want to learn more about life under the rule of King John in 1199 from the perspective of a twelve year old, this is the book for you.

It is a children's book, but I would not recommend it to any of the children I know as it would not keep their attention. The chapters are only a few pages long at the longest and the suspense of wondering if he is in fact some manifestation of King Arthur is a largely unanswered question at the end of this book. I assume you would learn more in later books, but after reading the first book I hardly want to continue on in the series. The most exciting thing to happen is Arthur jumps between two bulls to save his friend and the bulls from dying. It really was fairly boring to me as a story.

Arthur de Caldicot, on his way to becoming a man, witnesses the horrors of the Fourth Crusade in Venice and Zara, as well as the downfall of King Arthur's court, in his seeing stone.

Arthur The Seeing Stone

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