Knee-Knock Rise [Paperback]

Natalie Babbitt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1981

From the moment young Egan arrives in Instep for the annual fair, he is entranced by the fable surrounding the misty peak of Kneeknock Rise: On stormy nights when the rain drives harsh and cold, an undiscovered creature raises its voice and moans. Nobody knows what it is—nobody has ever dared to try to find out and come back again. Before long, Egan is climbing the Rise to find an answer to the mystery.

Kneeknock Rise is a 1971 Newbery Honor Book.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-6. This unabridged audio recording of Natalie Babbit's Knee Knock Rise (FS&G, 1970) is a wonderful way to enjoy this fable about man's need for belief systems. A young boy ventures from a tiny village to discover the source of a mysterious cry at the top of a rocky mountain. Despite evidence that the sound is an explainable, natural occurrence, the townsfolk refuse to believe it is anything but the wailing and moaning monster, the Megramum. Suzanne Toren, who received the 1988 Narrator of the Year Award for the narration of 900 Talking Books for the Library of Congress, gives an outstanding performance as the narrator and the voices of each realistic and well-defined character. Her voice is pleasant and animated. The clear recording, with even volume, will stand alone or as a companion to the book. In the school setting, teachers and librarians can use it as an introduction to the author, with small or large groups. Reluctant readers will find this a helpful tool and it also would be a great addition to a family library.
Lisa J. Radmer, Opstad Elementary School,
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Here’s a wonderfully fluent fable about man’s need to have something to believe in. . . . The strength of this tale is in Natalie Babbitt’s clean, modern, very confident telling. For children, especially, this is fine writing.”—School Library Journal, Starred Review

“An enchanting tale imbued with a folk flavor.”—Booklist, Starred Review

“The allegory seems to have grown slowly and surely, so much folk feeling does it have along with its symbolism and satire. Beautifully and clearly written, the story can be read aloud with pleasure.”—The Horn Book Magazine

“Natalie Babbitt’s prose is as clean as her pen line. Like The Search . . . delicious.”—Kirkus Reviews

“The theme is ageless—it poses the questions: Who is the fool? Who is the wise man? With help from her characters and from a sly cat and a very endearing old dog, Natalie Babbitt gives a brilliant answer—brilliant because her star, with each new book she writes, shines brighter in the universe of children’s books.”—Publishers Weekly

“Fantasy for the whole family.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A delightful fantasy stressing man’s need for a belief in the supernatural.”—The Kansas City Star

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (June 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380008491
• ISBN-13: 978-0380008490
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is it better to be wise or foolish?, May 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Kneeknock Rise (Sunburst Book) (Paperback)

We had the honor of having Mrs. Babbitt read the final chapter to our second graders. They enjoyed debating the issue of whether the Megrimum was real or not. The joy about the book and the author is that each reader must decide. As for me I believe the Megrimum will live forever.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nihilism for Kids (Spoilers)., November 23, 2007

By 

J. Whelan (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kneeknock Rise (Paperback)

The best thing about this story is the setup, involving a weirdly mist-shrouded hill that, according to legend, is haunted by a man-eating demon. After that -- let's just say that a reader who expects nothing will not be disappointed. I will start with relatively minor quibbles, and work my way up. Spoilers will follow:

The story works best as a mystery, but is clumsy even on that level. As in "Tuck Everlasting", Babbitt's weakness is lazy plotting and contrived character motivations. Can we really believe that a young boy would simply decide to journey in the dead of night, in a rainstorm, armed only with a stick, accompanied only by a small elderly dog, to do battle with a giant man-eating demon who he knows or at least believes has devoured every human who has encountered it? Why would he would not turn back, even after hearing the demon's larger-than-life howls? Would he really do this just for dare? Is he suicidal? Could he not at least have taken with him (for instance) a purported magic charm, or some other flimsy basis for hoping he might be able to defeat the demon rather than merely die a horrible death?

The purpose of this contrivance, supposedly, is to get our fearless hero to the lonely hilltop so he can solve the mystery. But instead of discovering for himself, he just happens, by coincidence, to meet on the hilltop an Adult-Explainer-Ex-Machina who TELLS him what is -- and, perhaps more importantly to Babbitt, what is NOT -- on the hill. I guess Babbitt felt constrained to rely on this contrivance because of the inherent impossibility of proving a negative.

But the worst of it is that, after the mystery is (sort of) resolved, we are then forced to endure the nihilistic MORAL, mouthed by yet another Adult Explainer. Referring to the hill demon, he says:

"Nephew, I'll tell you what I think. I think it doesn't really matter. The only thing that matters is whether you want to believe that he is there or not. And if your mind is made up, all the facts in the world won't make a difference."

You hear that kiddies? Why invest the intense effort required for actual learning when you can just believe whatever you please? Why endure the sacrifices that come with honesty and integrity when you can just say what people want to hear? As is repeatedly emphasized elsewhere in this book, knowing the truth and telling the truth can only make you and others miserable.

What makes the above nihilism particularly bizarre is the context: Here we have an adult - and a parent - taking the position that it does not matter whether or not a nearby hill is home to a man-eating monster. That is rather like saying that it does not matter whether or not the next-door neighbor is a serial killer. Of course it matters!

If you want spooky stories with rational explanations, I am sure you will find better than this. You can try Washington Irving, for starters. You can even watch Scooby Doo! At least the Scooby gang has the sense to flee in terror when the monster gives chase. They seem to realize something this author does not -- that it does indeed matter whether or not the monster is real.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the clarity of not knowing, July 7, 2006

By 

Heldenbaer1 (Minneapolis, MN. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kneeknock Rise (Sunburst Book) (Paperback)

Others have told the story of this children's book, so I won't rehash it. Some of the younger readers have also shown their jaded natures in panning it, but I found it to be interesting, if a bit disconcerting, which is, perhaps, what the author wanted the book to be all about. I am not sure. Babbitt's writing style has some very, very good visual images, and her characterizations are well-drawn. My rating starts with that, at least.

But it is the 'moral' of the story that continues to bother me. We all find out that some things we believed in childhood, are no longer true when we come to a certain age; and that is a part of growing up.

But what we come to find is not true, often are not the things themselves, but how OTHERS have viewed them- and it is this false insight, which make us cynical as we age. That is both an enlightenment and a curse. And that, I think, is the 'moral' the author conveys in Kneeknock rise. At least Babbitt leaves us with the understanding that both the uncle and the child know 'what is true,' but BOTH are content to understand it as true in their own way, without coming to believe that the world they inhabit is false- rather, they know truth as part of the whole, and realize the delusion rests just among the mortals with which they have to interact.

Age range for this novel is difficult to pin down. As an adult, the 'moral' is still resonating with me, a week after I read it. But the simple conclusion the book COULD afford, means that it should not be read to those too young to grasp the subtlety of,for instance, say the real person- St. Nicholas of Myra; (who did exist, and does within the pantheon of Orthodox saints) and our American Santa claus, who.... well, you know.

Age range? oh, 9-10. I think one could even assign this as a book to read, but it might/should be better as a 'read-aloud' at home, with parents to answer the tough existential questions. But even here, one has to ask one's self the question, do we want a cynical 10 year old...or at least one more... around, when the joy of childhood and it's naivete are so much more to be prized? As a HS dad, I find the already encroaching worldliness of a child having spent ONE year in PS hard to bear. Now that I am HS myself, that innocence and gentleness of spirit is slowly returning. And that is something I would not want to die within myself, or my children. A book such as this is potent stuff, in an age of cynicism run amok. Therefore, to read or not to read,
That is a question each parent will have to ask himself.