An Easy Read...Finally!

Having wrestled with the first two books we read, T.H. White's The Sword in the Stone was a breeze! I love period pieces so it was fun to jump back in time to the days of armed knights, castles and jousting. This, coupled with witches, wizards, monsters and talking animals, made for an easy read about young Wart (which rhymes with "Art," the shortened version of Arthur) and the time leading to his becoming King Arthur.

The Wart had an interesting education as a boy. (And yes, I often had to say Wart out loud to not pronounce it like wart, the blister!) His teacher, Merlyn, turned him into various animals so that he might learn about life from different perspectives, sent him on adventures with Robin Wood (not Hood) and took him to see jousting knights.

I must admit that while the book was fun, it wasn't my favorite. I can't really explain why...it's just that I only liked it as opposed to loving it. In addition, I kept waiting for the big scene where he pulls the sword out of the stone, but it was just a quick moment in the last few pages of the book. I am fine with the fact that the book was about Arthur's childhood, not his time as king, but I was hoping for a little more excitement when it came to that part, seeing as the book is called The Sword in the Stone! However, upon further research, I have learned that White wrote several sequels to this book so perhaps I will pick up one or all of them at some point to *hopefully* get more of that part of the story. In the end, Merlyn and the Wart entertained me for about two weeks--which was all it took to read this book.

One last point - I do not remember Disney's 1963 movie at all so as I read the book, the story was was entirely new to me. This was nice, although Kelly and I took to saying "What? What, what?" to each other for a while in the voice of King Pellinore that she remembers from the film. :)

Devon