The Barefoot Book of Knights with CD

Author: John Matthews
Illustrated by: Giovanni Manna
Paperback with CD: 80 page(s)
Age Range: 4 - 10

Book Description:

Not just anyone can be a knight, and this spell-binding collection of action-packed stories from around the world will show you why. From the familiar court of King Arthur to the distant realm of Prince Vladimir of Kiev, this enticing collection reveals that being a good knight is harder than it may seem. Not only are a brave heart and a strong arm required, but it is also necessary to know your own weaknesses, learn to cooperate with others and even, at times, have a good sense of humor!
Giovanni Manna brings his warm, colorful characters to these adventurous tales that are sure to delight young would-be knights across the land.

- Book of the Year Bronze Medal, ForeWord Magazine
- Storytelling World Award 2004

Publishers Weekly
The Barefoot Book of Knights by John Matthews, illus. by Giovanni Manna, a collection of seven stories from as many nations, is framed as a series of anecdotes told to a young page. Full-page and vignette ink-and-watercolor illustrations resurrect a bygone era, offering a glimpse of landscapes and architecture from Russia to Japan.

Booklist
Enhancing the practical skills taught in such manuals as O'Brien's The Making of a Knight (1998) or Garrett' s Knight's Handbook: How to Become a Knight in Shining Armor (1997), Matthews offers seven retold legends that illustrate proper knightly behavior. A gruff, well-traveled instructor of medieval pages introduces each tale: the Arthurian story of the Kitchen Knight points up humility; kindness to animals leads to a samurai's victory in "Yogodayu and the Army of Bees"; humor (grim humor, to be sure) serves in the Russian "Three Journeys of Ilya of Murom." Others stories exemplify cleverness, courage, and, in the French episode "Sir Cliges and the Cherry Tree," Christian generosity. Manna's informally posed, puppetlike figures, placed in sylvan settings, reflect neither the violence nor the high tone of these versions, but modern young knights-in-training will still find this a salutary introduction to chivalric virtues.