The Seeing Stone (The Arthur Trilogy #1)

by Kevin Crossley-Holland

Overview

Arthurian legend comes to life in the first novel in this remarkable, award-winning sagaThirteen-year-old Arthur de Caldicot lives on a manor, desperately waiting for the moment he can become a knight. One day his father's friend Merlin gives him a shining black stone - a seeing stone - that shows him visions of his namesake, King Arthur. The legendary dragons, battles, and swordplay that young Arthur witnesses seem a world away from his own life. And yet there is something definitely joining the Arthurs together. It will be Arthur de Caldicot's destiny to discover how his path is intertwined with a king's . . . for the past is not the only thing the seeing stone can see.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545232081
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	01/01/2010
Series:	The Arthur Trilogy , #1
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
Lexile:	640L (what's this?)
File size:	939 KB
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Kevin Crossley-Holland was born in 1941 in Mursley, North Buckinghamshire, and grew up in Whiteleaf, a village in the Chiltern Hills of western England. He attended Oxford University, where, after failing his first exams, he developed his passion for Anglo-Saxon literature. After graduating, he was the Gregory Fellow in Poetry at the University of Leeds, and from 1972-1977, he lectured in Anglo-Saxon for the Tufts University of London program. He worked as a children's book editor while beginning to write his own poems and reinterpretations of medieval legends. He has also taught for extended periods in America. He now lives in Norfolk, England.Kevin Crossley-Holland has published six volumes of adult poetry and several libretti for opera. In the world of children's books, he is best known for his numerous retellings and anthologies, and in particular his version of Beowolf. Storm, his novella, won the Carnegie Medal in 1985.The Seeing Stone, published by Scholastic, is his only other work of original fiction. T.H White is the inevitable comparison for Kevin Crossley-Holland's new novel, American readers will also be reminded of Karen Cushman, for the earthy, rich portrayal of life in a medieval manor. Its sequel, At the Crossing-Places, was published in the United States in fall 2002. The third title in this trilogy is King of the Middle March, which will be published in 2003.

Table of Contents

1.	Arthur and Merlin	1
2.	A Terrible Secret	3
3.	Into the Bullring	5
4.	My Black King Finger	13
5.	Duty	14
6.	Coeur De Lion	18
7.	My Tailbone	21
8.	Little Luke and Pigeon Pie	23
9.	Tumber Hill	25
10.	The Sleeping King	30
11.	Jack Words	35
12.	Fever	36
13.	Knowing and Understanding	38
14.	Jumpers and My Writing Room	44
15.	Nine	48
16.	Three Sorrows, Three Fears, Three Joys	50
17.	Tempest's Teeth	51
18.	Just Jack	52
19.	Nain in Armor	53
20.	Obsidian	54
21.	Lance and Longbow	57
22.	Long Live the King!	63
23.	The Messenger's Complaint	66
24.	Royal Brothers	68
25.	Ice and Fire	73
26.	Merlin	74
27.	Muffled	77
28.	The Peddler	78
29.	Luke	81
30.	Poor Stupid	82
31.	The Seeing Stone	90
32.	On My Own	93
33.	Nutshells and Good Earth	94
34.	Desire	101
35.	A Flyting	106
36.	Hallowe'en	109
37.	Passion	121
38.	Strange Saints	126
39.	Uther Explains	128
40.	Schoolmen, Scribes, and Artists	130
41.	Mouthfuls of Air	135
42.	Foster Child	137
43.	Crossing Places	139
44.	Luke's Illness	140
45.	Pains	143
46.	An Unfair Song	144
47.	A New Bow	146
48.	Ice	150
49.	Baptism	151
50.	My Name	153
51.	Hooter and Worse	156
52.	My Quest	162
53.	Brother	165
54.	Between Breath and Breath	166
55.	Hares and Angels	170
56.	Pots of Tears	174
57.	The Half=Dead King	175
58.	Lady Alice and My Tailbone	177
59.	Grace and Tom	181
60.	Fifth Son	191
61.	The Goshawk	192
62.	Thin Ice	196
63.	Devil's Berries	200
64.	Rot and Bad Blood	203
65.	The Art of Forgetting	205
66.	Hot and Important	207
67.	The Gates of Paradise	208
68.	Words for Luke	211
69.	Despair	213
70.	The Manor Court	215
71.	Butterflies	226
72.	Merlin and the Archbishop	228
73.	The Acorn	231
74.	Spelling	232
75.	The Pope's Proclamation	234
76.	Nothing's Not Worth Hiding	238
77.	Foul Stroke	243
78.	Not Yet	250
79.	The Archbishop's Messenger	252
80.	The Knight in the Yellow Dress	256
81.	Tanwen's Secret	260
82.	King John's Christmas Present	267
83.	Nine Gifts	270
84.	The Sword in the Stone	272
85.	Splatting and Sword=Pulling	275
86.	Riding to London	281
87.	Christmas	283
88.	Sir Kay	292
89.	Fourth Son	294
90.	The Turning of the Century	297
91.	Lightly and Fiercely	299
92.	The Whole Armor	302
93.	King of Britain	304
94.	Blood=Truths	309
95.	The Son of Uther	317
96.	Blood on the Snow	321
97.	Unhooded	327
98.	At Once	330
99.	What Matters	334
100.	Song of the North Star	338
	Word List	339

Editorial Reviews

01/01/2017
ea vol: (Arthur Trilogy). Scholastic. ebk. $4.99Gr 7 Up—At the turn of the 13th century, a boy named Arthur receives a magical stone from the mysterious Merlin that shows him scenes from the life and times of the earlier legendary king. The stories relate loosely to his own development, as the boy grows from page to knight, from innocence to wisdom, and becomes enmeshed in the societal upheavals of his times and the ill-fated Fourth Crusade.

School Library Journal

The Barnes & Noble Review
Kevin Crossley-Holland spins an enchanting tale of magic and mystery in The Seeing Stone, the first book in a planned trilogy based on Arthurian legend. The story opens at the cusp of the 12th and 13th centuries, when a 13-year-old lad named Arthur discovers that his life is about to take some unexpected turns. At the heart of all this change is Merlin, a mysterious man who possesses incredible knowledge and power. It is Merlin's special gift to young Arthur -- a shiny piece of obsidian -- that gives this book its name and much of its magic.

All that young Arthur can think about is his desire to become a squire and, eventually, a knight, a goal his father seems determined to prevent him from reaching. At first, the only thing Arthur has to feed his dream are his hopes and his imagination, which are often tempered by the harsh realities of life. But then his mentor, Merlin, gives him a shiny stone, uttering a cryptic message about its power. When Arthur looks into the dark surface of the stone, images appear -- snippets of past events from other people's lives, including a powerful King named Uther and a young knight named Arthur. When certain aspects of young Arthur's life begin to parallel those of his namesake in the seeing stone, he begins to wonder if the images might not be a glimpse of the future rather than the past. Arthur's quest for the truth answers some of his questions but also raises plenty of others, no doubt as a lead-in to the second chapter in this trilogy.

This is no fluffy tale of Camelot. Arthur tackles a number of provocative issues in his dealings with others, and his observations provide a grim but realistic commentary on the filth, hunger, and barbarism that was a regular part of life in the Middle Ages. But the book's overall structure -- told from Arthur's point of view in 100 very short chapters -- and its mystical overtones make The Seeing Stone a quick and engaging read. (Beth Amos)

bn.com review

"In the first volume of the Arthur Trilogy, the author inventively reworks the legend of the Round Table through the diary of 13-year-old Arthur, living in an English manor in the 12th century," said PW in a starred review. "Readers will be itching for the sequel." Ages 10-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

In Great Britain, this first volume in a projected Arthurian trilogy was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award, the Guardian Children's Book Prize, and won the Bronze medal, Smarties Prize. On the level of medieval fantasy, it works very well indeed. The 13-year-old Arthur of this tale lives in the year 1199, the time of Richard Coeur de Lion, at Caldicot, and someone named Merlin also lives within the castle grounds. Merlin has given Arthur a piece of obsidian in which Arthur scries glimpses of another history: of Uther and Gorlois, of Sir Kay and a sword, and of a boy who shares his name and his countenance. He does not know these stories, but he is obsessed with reading and writing, with being named a squire, and with why his older brother hates him so. Arthur is a most engaging companion and a plenitude of historical facts about life in 12th-century England is imparted, but not a whole lot happens. At the end of this doorstopper all we know is that Arthur is not who he seems, nor is Merlin, and that his quest is about to begin. One cannot help but compare it to T.H. White's Once and Future King, and one might be far more inclined to put that in the hands of youngsters eager for legend. (Fiction. 11-15) $100,000 ad/promo

Kirkus Reviews