Customer Reviews

The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a university student now, and looking back on the events of my childhood that shaped my life, I have to include this book. Never before had anything stuck in my head and stayed with me so much. I have led a full and rich life, but it is fuller and richer than would otherwise be due to the thing this book did to me. Many books, good and otherwise, operate by leaving readers either fulfilled - as in comedies - or unfulfilled - as in tragedies. Very rarely does a book manage to successfully wield both. Though it must be odd to find this in a book intended for a younger audience, I think it is one of the best things that can happen to a child. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the reader is forced to reflect on it, by sheer writing ability and quality of story. Suddenly, a child must both recognize the tragedy and the comedy, and feel it buzzing in their brain for years. I never thought about what I read before. I never thought much about anything, just doing what seemed the proper thing to do. After this book, I began to really think. Thank you, Mr. Alexander, for giving the youth of the world this book. You touch lives, and shape minds more than most teachers, and on a much larger scale. I will never forget the magician, the bucket of water, or Lukas Kasha. I will be thinking of them on my death bed. They have become a part of my psyche. Oh, yeah, buy this book. I strongly recommend it for children 3rd-7th grade, and anyone else in the market for a good read. If I could give it five more stars, I would.

"The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha" is a fast-paced, funny adventure by Newbery-winner Lloyd Alexander. It's got action, a dash of romance, humor, tragedy, and a moral lesson that doesn't beat you over the head. It's not quite perfect, but fairly close to it.

Lukas-Kasha is a professional bum, an accomplished slacker, a boy who takes great pride in doing nothing at all. But all that has to change when a strange magician sends him through time and space in a bucket of water. He washes up on a strange beach, and is quickly whisked off to the city of Abadan and is crowned King Kasha. (It was prophecied by the astrologer that the next king would come from the sea)

At first, Lukas is fine with this. Then he finds that the sinister vizier Shugdad is using him as a puppet -- and when he rebels, Shugdad plans to do away with him as he did the previous two kings. So Lukas runs away into the desert with a proud slave girl (Nur-Jehan) and a tart-tongued poet (Karim), to get help from the fierce, honorable Bishangaris. But Shugdad still wants to kill Lukas, and will do anything to get control of Abadan.

Alexander uses a cultural backdrop to most of his books -- most notably Wales in the Prydain Chronicles, but he also uses China, India, Greece, and so forth. This time, it's the Middle-East; he does an outstanding job of the exotic city of Abadan and the raw wilderness of the desert. There are some outstandingly funny scenes, such as Lukas tricking a merchant out of a horse. And the subplot about Lukas's growing selflessness is an excellent, subtle moral lesson.

Lukas is one of Alexander's most likeable heroes. He initially isn't very sympathetic because he is so proudly, insistently lazy, but his untapped decency wins out when he is called on to be a king, or a warrior, a trickster, or a peacemaker. He just needed something to spur him on. Nur-Jehan is flatter than most of Alexander's heroines, because she lacks that special spark that the other heroines do. Karim is likeably acidic, the voice of reason, and the astrologer Lucman is sweet because he simply cannot get his predictions right, until he's scrounging in the streets.

It's not Alexander's best, but it's up near the top of the list. "The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha" is definitely worth a read, and definitely a keeper.

This is an absolutely enjoyable book. Lukas Kasha is a young man who claims the title of the town laze- when a magician sends him to another land and he's the new king of this land. Lukas Kasha much grow up, learn to govern, and stick to his morals in a kingdom of very few morals. (Killing is the norm for many of the people in this new land.) The plot is fast paced and the characters are fun. It is easy to get swept up in reading this book and loose all sence of time. Wonderful. I particularly liked the lessons Lukas learns during his adventure and how he takes them right away and puts them into place in his life. I also liked how he tried to do right by people even though encouraged not to and the easier way would be to not help the people he did help. Truly a great lesson in how everything that you put out, you get back ten fold.

Enjoy.

This is by far my favorite Lloyd Alexander title (and I've read almost all of his children's literature). It's characters are engaging, and the plot is unpredictable and fast-paced. The ending is surprising, and the whole thing is loads of fun!!!

Remembering Lloyd Alexander from when I enjoyed his novels in grade school, I just had to pick up and read this book when a younger sibling checked it out of the library. It was every bit as entertaining and delightful as I remember his other books (mostly the Prydain Chronicles) to be. It tells the humorous tale of the town delinquent, Lukas Kasha, and how he is magically transported to the kingdom of Abadan where the people instantly hail him as king. All is not well in the kingdom; however, and the story shows how Lukas is transformed (almost against his will) into a mature and responsible man. Lloyd still spins a wonderful story, and "The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha" is guaranteed to entertain.

I first read "Lukas-Kasha" at twelve, and loved it so much I promptly read it a second time. I then wrote an enthusiastic book review of it. At thirty, I still remembered it and wanted to read it again -- only to find it was out of print. About six months of searching landed me two well-used copies, which I promptly gave away in my enthusiasm to win converts. Perhaps I'll now buy five or six.

I've read a few other Lloyd Alexander books, and they strike me as rather formulaic fantasy, a genre I don't care for. "Lukas," on the other hand, is a very non-formulaic fable. Rather, it is a keenly insightful, compassionate, and honest treatment of universal issues facing adolescents: developing an identity, deciding between right and wrong, developing deep friendships, coping with loss and disappointment, and formulating a system of values.

One adult friend of mine dismissed "Lukas Kasha" as "puerile;" I can't agree. While I admit some of the dialogue and a few of the jokes are labored, the overall narrative gives a convincingly optimistic vision of the triumph of compassion over greed and self-interest. If you know of a sensitive, earnest young adolescent, male or female, perhaps a little misunderstood, you couldn't do better than to give him or her this book.

Go on an adventure with unbelievable characters in Abadan,to escape the evil vizier,Shugdad.Are Lukases sharp wits sharper then shugdads spears? See in this imaginative book with Nur-Jehan,Kayim,Lukas,Shugdad,and many more.This is a very good book out of all Alexander's marvelous tales.

This book contains that Alexander humor interlaced with wisdom that has distinguished many of his novels for children. One cannot help but laugh over Lukas-Kasha's pranks and no good mischief. Yet, through all this, one can see the growth of a boy to a young man who finally discovers himself and takes responsibility for it. This is probably one of Alexander's best work, next only to the Prydain Chronicles. It's sad that it's now "hard to find"

books were described as new and that is what they were. Printed in 1978 and in off the shelf condition.

I first read this book in middle school. In fact, I accidentally stole it from the school library (lost it at home and found it much later, after we had paid the lost fee). I loved the book then, and I still love it at age 41. I read this book every few years and can't wait until I can read it with my sons. It's just magical.