King Arthur's Very Great Grandson (review)

"Henry Alfred Grummorson was the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of King Arthur," and in true Arthurian style he arises on his sixth birthday, saddles up Knuckles (his "trusty donkey"), and heads for the hills to face the resident dragon. The dragon tries to challenge Henry with his impressive smoke rings, but Henry wants a proper fight, dagnabbit, so the dragon refers him to the Cyclops in the mountains. Unfortunately, the Cyclops is equally unimpressive, as are the griffin and the leviathan that Henry subsequently searches out. One would think the boy would be disappointed to come up empty on his first quest for glory, but in fact, Henry kind of likes his new friends and he figures he's actually done pretty well just to face the monsters at all: "To his knowledge, not even the great King Arthur had accomplished as much in his first two days as a six-year-old." There's an appropriately folkloric pattern to Henry's quest, and the surprising outcome of his search for a battle partner is humorously satisfying. Henry's dashingly defiant, archaic dialogue is equally comical, making this a pleasure to read aloud. Kraegel's line and watercolor illustrations feature a diminutive, helmet-clad Henry relentlessly pressing onward, sword extended, against the four not-so-fearsome creatures. While the figures are generally rendered with an almost naïve simplicity, details of the monsters' appearance (the feathers and fur of the griffin, the scales of the dragon) and the geographical backgrounds are intricately detailed; the sea is particularly arresting as the multiple currents and waves look like a thorny tangle of branches in subtly varying hues of blue. Pair this with any number of amusing tales about knights (such as Wojtowycz's Elephant Joe, Brave Knight!, reviewed below), or with a more traditional chivalrous tale for an interesting literary contrast.