utter randomonium

Knightscares #1: Cauldron Cooker’s Night by David Anthony and Charles David: Josh and Jozlyn live in your typical Medieval-ish fantasy village, with fairy armies and witches’ holidays. Our story begins on Cauldron Cooker’s Night, a celebration for witches that leaves regular folk cowering under their beds. When the whole town is turned to frogs by a vengeful witch, it is up to Josh and Jozlyn to save them. Along the way they encounter ogres and wizards, magic mushrooms and bog beasts. Master Gramble, the turtle with the brain of a stone, was probably my favorite character, and I hope he shows up in future volumes of the series. The illustrations were fine and detailed. This was more or less a standard sword’n’sorcery tale but I happen to like me some good old fashioned S&S so I’m not complaining. That said, it is undeniably written for children, complete with cautionary asides about not eating wild mushrooms without a parent around and other such things that took me out of the story. Which isn’t a bad thing, of course – it just means that I, as an adult, did not get as much enjoyment out of the story as I probably would have a couple decades ago. However, this would be a fun one to read aloud to your kids, if only to say “griznt” over and over again.

Also posted on BookCrossing.