King Arthur and the Black Knight

by Cari Meister (Retold by), Sahin Erkocak (Illustrator)

Overview

After the Black Knight breaks King Arthur’s sword in battle, Arthur gets a new one from the Lady of the Lake. But this is no ordinary sword.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666305036
Publisher:	Capstone
Publication date:	06/01/2021
Series:	Read-It! Readers: Legends
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Cari Meister has written more than 130 books for children, including the Tiny series (Penguin) and the Fast Forward Fairy Tales series (Scholastic).  Cari is a school librarian and she loves to visit other schools and libraries to talk about the joy of reading and writing.  Cari lives in the mountains of Colorado with her husband, four boys, one horse, and one dog.  You can find out more about her at www.carimeister.com.

Editorial Reviews

K-Gr 2–The books in this level of the series claim to present “more challenging ideas, a broad vocabulary range, and expanded sentence structure.” Sword in the Stone and Golden Arrow are choppy. The more complex sentence structures implement the use of simple words effectively but, when interspersed with the many short sentences, result in a disjointed feel. Black Knight and Tricky Butcher flow better and have more character development. Still, all of the tales are stripped down to bare bones and lose much of the backstories, adventure, and charm. Mato has the boys lost and stranded on the top of the tower, then flashes forward to their adulthood, leaving readers to wonder how they got out of their predicament. Layout is the same in all of the books: text at the top of most pages and colorful illustrations filling in the rest of the space. The best use of these titles would be as introductions to the legends for slow or reluctant readers. Children already at this reading level might be better served by picture-book versions of the tales, such as Robert San Souci’s Young Arthur (Doubleday, 1997). It’s a bit more difficult, but it has a more engaging story.–Kelly Roth, Bartow County Public Library, Cartersville, GA

School Library Journal

On a peaceful day in the kingdom of Camelot, Merlin and King Arthur are racing their horses. The day takes a turn for the unusual when a knight in black unknowingly challenges King Arthur to a fight. The stronger and swifter knight fights a good fight, and then destroys Arthur’s sword. Merlin uses magic to cast the black knight into a sleep. They escape and take time to heal. Merlin leads Arthur to the Lady of the Lake, where he is introduced to his new weapon, Excalibur. Arthur accepts the sword with the condition to use it only for good. Upon return to the kingdom, Arthur is once again challenged to a fight with the black knight. After a long battle, Arthur wins, and exercises goodwill and spares the knight. With engaging and beautiful illustrations, the folklore and legend of Arthur are retold in a manner that will have children demanding many rereads. The mysticism of Merlin and the honor of knighthood are charming threads. This is a fantastic book to read aloud, and the narrative elements are easy to understand. This green level “Read It Reader” also has an excellent web link on the last page to extend reading opportunities.

Children's Literature Comprehensive Database