3
Nov

The Children of the King

   Posted by: Julia Redlich   in Bookworm

Book Review:  The Children of the King

One of the rewards of speaking to groups about King Richard III and the Society is the appreciation received afterwards. When Dorothea and Julia spoke to U3A Harbourside North at Mosman recently, not only did we enlist two new members, but also received a welcome book token. Our choice was to buy The Children of the King, by Sonia Hartnett, an Australian author who has won multiple awards for her books including the prestigious Astrid Lingrin Memorial Award in 2008.  Because Hartnett’s books are specially for young people, we asked an 10-year-old to read it for us and share her thoughts.

The Children of the King, by Sonia Hartnett, Viking, rrp $24.95. ISBN 978 0 670 07613.

The Children of the KingThis story is about two girls and a boy during World War 2. Cecily and her brother Jeremy move with their mother to their Uncle Peregrine’s house in the north of England to escape the bombing in London. They also decide to look after another girl called May who is there on her own. Jeremy, who is older, is worried about his father who has to stay in London, and wants to be with him.

The girls find two strangely clothed boys hiding in old crumbling Snow Castle nearby. They learn they were brought there and can’t leave. Uncle Peregrine tells them about an old kingdom when Snow Castle was not a ruin. Over time he tells more of what happened then, of a Duke who became king and did his best, but was killed. May believes that the two boys in the castle who reappear at times were two who disappeared mysteriously long ago. Together the girls find out whether the past can live with the present.

My favourite part of the story is definitely when Uncle Peregrine tells the story of Snow Castle and its mysteries. No-one ever found out about it. The story is really engaging, the history is told slowly. It made me want to find out more about the times – and especially about the two boys, who they were and what happened to them. I give this book Three Stars out of Three!!!

Annaliese

Note: The Children of the King is a great gift idea for young people in your life. Annaliese’s Aunt Lucy and her grandmother couldn’t put it down, which accounts for the all ages queue waiting to read it!

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This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2012 at 0:01 and is filed under Bookworm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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  1. Richard III Society of NSW » Blog Archive » AWARD FOR THE CHILDREN OF THE KING    Aug 17 2013 / 2pm:

    […] that Sonya Hartnett was awarded this year’s Book of the Year: Younger Readers award for her novel The Children of the King at the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards at the National Library of Australia […]

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