Sunday, October 24, 2010

The Book of Three

I have been reading The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander to my son at night. He has to listen to it for his homeschooling book club. I tried getting him to read it earlier this year, but he said it was boring. Now that I am reading it out loud, he is really enjoying it. It is very easy to read and the characters are quite funny. Inevitably while I am reading the chapter he will laugh at one of the characters. Afterward, he will quote his favourite funny line(s). Bruce has been listening, too, since he is the one teaching Brendan and needs to know the story for when the book club gets together. He has said he thinks Lloyd Alexander drew heavily from Celtic mythology in the writing.

The story is about an Assistant Pig-Keeper (Taryn), who has fantastical ideas of what a hero is until he is plunged into an adventure of his own. His companions are a scruffy creature who loves his crunchings and munchings (Gurgi), a young girl with attitude (Eilonwy), and a king turned bard who can't keep his enchanted harp strings from breaking because of his tendency to stretch the truth (Fflewdddur Fflam). It is a story about true courage, camaraderie and growing up.

1 comment:

mobang said...

Bruce, can we say Mabinogian? :-)