Come to the Castle!: A Visit to a Castle in Thirteenth-Century England - Hardcover

Ashman, Linda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1596431555 ISBN 13: 9781596431553

Publisher: Flash Point, 2009

Synopsis

BEHIND THE SCENES IN A MEDIEVAL CASTLE

History comes alive in poetry and pictures.

Welcome to the 13th-century banquet at the castle of the Earl of Daftwood! Here young readers will meet all of the lords and ladies, the servants and the squires. They will discover surprises: flying silverware and mystery meat made of animal feet for dinner--life in the castle isn't always elegant. Linda Ashman's clever rhyming text and S.D Schindler's intricate illustrations look at life in a medieval castle from multiple eye-opening perspectives.

About this title

About the Author:

LINDA ASHMAN is the author of many critically acclaimed books for children, including Babies On the Go, illustrated by Jane Dyer, and Castles, Caves, and Honeycombs, illustrated by Lauren Stringer, a Booklist Editors' Choice. She lives with her husband and son in Denver, CO.

S. D. SCHINDLER is the popular illustrator of many bestselling picture books, including How Santa Got His Job, Big Pumpkin, and the 2005 Newbery Honor Book Wittington. He lives in Philadelphia, PA.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3–5—In the vein of Laura Amy Schlitz's Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! (Candlewick, 2007), Ashman offers voices of several characters within the castle of a bumbling earl as he decrees that he will hold a tournament and a banquet. What this actually means is that his staff will plan the events and suffer the consequences as they clean up after the visiting nobles. The story is straightforward; what is interesting here are the multiple perspectives in rhyming poems that drive the narrative and the humorous artwork filled with period details. Schindler fills the pages with color, from the illustrations themselves to the illuminated borders and drop-cap letters that echo medieval texts. Ashman's poetry holds together well, only occasionally dropping the meter. Endnotes offer historical facts about the roles of each of the characters, from the steward to the "gong farmer," whose job was to clean the privy. In fact, the gong farmer is the most captivating character in the book: his poem and illustration are laid out length-wise to show the drop from the privy to where the mess eventually ends up. While for a younger audience and not as useful in a classroom context as Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, this book presents more details to expand on the period, and browsers will be enchanted by the illustrations.—Alana Abbott, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford, CT
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About this edition

• Publisher: Flash Point
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1596431555
• ISBN 13: 9781596431553
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Schindler S.D.