Customer Reviews

The Castle Corona

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Castle Corona, which veers far from Sharon Creech's usual territory, follows the lives of several characters: two princes, a king, a queen, a young princess, and two peasants (which isn't naming all but the main cast of characters).

The conflict: a thief in the kingdom and what happens next...
Well...honestly, the happenings in this story are predictable. The book is comprised of about 320 pages, and the ending can be guessed from the first chapter alone. One might consider this a bad story then, which is a point I disagree with. This is a short, (if you consider the size of the print) cute read. I did enjoy the writing style and descriptions, and there were more than a few instances of humor that did garner some chuckles.

The problem: the plot and its execution.
The end result to the plot is kind of like a 747 parked in a mall parking lot. It is that obvious. I have read books with very similar endings, and while I may not have been completely ignorant to what was going to happen (I had a pretty good idea), the execution of such a familiar plot left me enjoying the outcome. In the case of The Castle Corona, other than the one sort of main plot, nothing really happens. The ending was tied so tightly together and written in such a way (such a way meaning such a rush) that I was able to shut the book and shrug the story off, left with less feelings about it than I had halfway through or even in the story's beginning.

Were the characters bad? No; I especially liked the character of Prince Vito but was admittedly put off by the Princess. Is this a bad story? No. It is just...uneventful, but the few bits of humor and descriptions made me want to give it a three-star rating instead of a two (I didn't NOT like the book). If you love books by Sharon Creech (and I can raise my hand for this--Walk Two Moons especially) and this sounds interesting, check it out from the library (I would not suggest making a purchase). It would make a nice read-aloud for younger kids (especially if you throw in a few accents for different characters), but this is a book I will not pick up again, though this also is not a case where I regret the read.

This book was recommended to me by a 10 year old. She told me the book was beautiful, the story was great and she read it in one sitting. I'm inclined to read anything a young person recomends to me.

Pia and Enzio find a pouch in the woods one day, it is dropped by a thief. Pia and Enzio work for a horrid master and dream of being free and cared for like the royal family. The pouch and its mysterious belongings intertwines with the tale that is happening within the castle. I suppose the revelation was not as climatic as I was expecting. However, the story is delightful and once I remembered it enough it was fun to abbreviate and tell to my son before bed. The book is beautiful, the pages are "illuminated" a sort of old fashioned gold scrolling on the pages, pictures amid the chapters, it looks like an old fariy tale you plucked out of a very old library.

I could see why my little reader recommended it to me. I did ask her about it again after I finished, and she said she supposed the illustrations of the book made her feel transported into the story. She liked the book because she felt like she was in the book.

So while some of us grownup readers may have felt so so about the revelation, one girl I know loved it because she felt she became Pia, and I think this book was written for her and her friends more than for the likes of me.

A wonderful, whimsical, wise and creative story, that is filled with warmth. It is like an updated fairytale without loosing the charm. It will make perfect reading at night for storytime or to read on one's own. The pictures are wonderful, and they are like subtitles to the chapters, telling you whom the chapter will focus on. It gave me a nice, warm fuzzy feeling and left me with a smile, not something many childrens books do these days anymore. Cannot wait to read it to my grandchildren! Highly recommended.

I wanted to like this story. When I picked it up at a local bookstore and thumbed through it, I was intrigued by the illuminations. So I read a little of the beginning, which seemed to promise a whimsical fable. So I plunked down the $19.00 and took it home. It is an easy read, but ultimately disappointing. Oh, yes, it was whimsical, all right--to the point where I kept wondering whether anything of real interest was going to happen. Everyone in this story is connected, and their story-lines criss-cross in rather predictable ways, all leading up to the BIG REVELATION that was neither big nor a revelation nor even remotely interesting. Also, the illuminations, although very beautiful, keep repeating so that you only have a handful of images instead of the dozens the book seems to have on first glance. How cheap! Uuugh!

This book is overall a forgettable one. If you are in the mood for fables, I suggest you read instead THE SILENT GONDOLIERS by William Goldman and THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX by Kate DeCamillo. They are leagues better than The Castle Corona, and they also have artwork that actually evolve with the story and don't simply repeat the same images over and over.

It really does have a fantasy twist! A poetic prince falling in love with a peasant, an another peasant who sword fights with a daring and energetic prince who is very much different than the other prince, and a princess who adores her romantic and beautiful self and she screams a fit awful lot, the selfish brat. I highly recommend this to everybody especially people who have good imagination.

from: a grade 4 student

Two orphans named Pia and Enzio that live with a mean, dirty master named Pangini, they cook and clean for the master, run the food market he owns, and they clean his horses. Pia and Enzio were basically kid slaves, the master would always shout at them and give them orders and call them "Dirty Beetles!" One day when Pia and Enzio were in the woods collecting water for the hut.

When they start to walk home they encountered a thief chased by the king's men, the thief dropped the pouch with the stolen items as he was chased through the forest. As the moment happened Pia and Enzio dived to the piles of leaves struck in fear, frightened for they have never encountered anyone from the royal castle corona.
When there was no one in sight they stood up and right before their feet was the stolen pouch. Then Pia and Enzio go on this big adventure to the castle and They Lived Happily Ever After.

If You Haven't read the book i didn' want to spoil the tale for you.The book is a mystery, fantasy twisted into an amazing tale of royal fights and adventures. There's a lot of realizing in this book that's why it's so interesting. I hope after you read this you read the Castle Corona.

I think that castle corona is a great book. In the beginning lot of questions come up but near the middle and end it all ties together. It is a unpredictable book and you never know what will happen next.Since it takes place in medieval times, it is about kings, queens and peasants. overall it is a great book and everyone should read it.

My 7 and 3 year olds enjoyed this immensely. There may be holes in the
plot and its unfolding, but it has a great quality of understanding in its characters and we found it to be a perfect chapter book for bedtime reading.

The Castle Corona is a beautiful book, written by a Newbery award winner and with illuminations (not illustrations) by Caldecott winner David Diaz. The illuminations are a good way of explaining the book, actually, since the story is itself a blend of the old and the new. Diaz is a contemporary, multicultural artist working here in a medieval tradition--and this combination gives the artwork a unique look. In the same way, Sharon Creech blends the fairy tale tradition with the modern character-driven novel.

The Castle Corona begins with two peasant children who find a strange pouch dropped by a thief fleeing the King's Men through the forest. We soon learn more about this sister and brother, Pia and Enzio. We also find out about the lives of the royal family, who live in a glittering castle. Here's Creech's preface:

"Once there was a Castle, high on a hill,/and a King who longed for a nap/and a Queen who yearned for solitude/and a Prince who loved poetry/and a Princess who loved herself/and a Spare Prince who loved his sword/and a Hermit who was wise.//And there was a Village, down in the valley,/and a Peasant Girl who dreamed of flying/and a Peasant Boy who dreamed of horses/and a Master who dreamed of turnips/and an Old Woman who kept secrets."

The mystery of the pouch is solved in time, although The Castle Corona is less adventurous than one might expect. Rather, the story has a lot to do with how people are thinking and feeling. The royal family is initially portrayed as so inept and proud and superficial that readers might be rooting for them to be overthrown, but that's not where Creech is going with this. She's more interested in broadening the horizons of her dispirited, spoiled bunch of royals by introducing them to the freer personalities of her peasant boy and girl...

All of which confirms my impression that this book is really a contemporary fable. If you're not sure you agree, read the book and then picture the royal family as any upper-class family living in America today; then pop the peasants into the impoverished neighborhood or third-world country of your choice and voila! Still, maybe more than conveying a message about class and culture (not to mention today's fears about crime/terrorism), The Castle Corona touches on the idea that all of us are yearning for something more, and we're not even sure what that might be.

Sharon Creech flaunts the conventions of the genres she invokes right and left. And I suspect fables (or allegories) are a bit of a hard sell to the contemporary reader, who resents being preached at in even the smallest way. However, Creech has created something new here, and I for one like the result. Her language is lovely. Just look at this verb, when the overweight, overdressed, sycophantic Count and Countess are given an audience with the royal family: "When the King, the Queen, Prince Gianni, and Princess Fabrizia entered the reception chamber, the Count and Countess rustled to attention." Rustled to attention--just perfect! Another strength is the gentle humor with which Creech creates her characters and their personal frustrations, reminding me a little of Eleanor Farjeon's forgotten classic, The Silver Curlew.

The Castle Corona is unexpected in many ways, but it might just capture your heart and make you think--which is what only a very good and risk-taking writer is capable of doing.

(For a slightly futuristic fable about similar social themes, try Edward Bloor's new Young Adult novel, Taken.)

this book is awesome. in the begginning is was a little boring but it gets sooooooo good. a must read.