Another Robin Hood retelling? Why not, if it's created by the distinguished team that crafted Arthur, High King of Britain? Why not, if Morpurgo succeeds, as he does, in bringing together the isolated episodes of the legend into a coherent story following Robin Hood from childhood to his death? This Robin is driven into the Forest to join the "Outcasts" when his father is blinded by the Sheriff's men. Familiar stories, like the Nottingham archery contest, develop naturally out of the conflict between Robin's growing band and the evil Sheriff. Eventually, after decisively defeating the Sheriff's soldiers, Robin goes on an exciting journey to Austria to ransom King Richard. Robin appears as a heroic but decidedly human figure, with his family always important. There are a few moral twists: the Outcasts are disabled, disfigured or sick people "cleansed" from their villages by the Sheriff, and Marion herself is an albino, one of the "mutations," as she terms them. But these innovations are unlikely to slow the book's intended readers as they are swept along by a well-paced narrative and lively characterizations, aided by Foreman's loosely modeled, dynamic watercolors of key scenes. Ages 9-14.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8. The remarkable team that produced Arthur: High King of Britain (Harcourt, 1995) has taken on Robin Hood. Again, the catalyst is a modern 12-year-old boy. Finding Robin's skull in the heart of a storm-felled tree, the child faints and dreams of Robin, who, in turn, dreams of the boy. Using legend only as a frame, Morpurgo gives readers classic tragedy, complete with a seemingly invincible hero afflicted with hubris. When the sheriff's men capture and blind his father, Robin escapes to join the Outcasts in Sherwood. Among the author's inventions: the outlaws are disabled; Marion is a pink-eyed albino, an outlaw before Robin. Neither Robin nor Marion is well-born; Earl of Locksley is an alias. Robin and Marion have a son. Will Scarlet is a hunchbacked old man. Little John dunks Much and Tuck, not Robin. The outlaws ransom Richard, who is not Howard Pyle's "good King Richard of the Lion's Heart," (The Merry Adventure of Robin Hood [Dover, 1968]) but history's Richard, an adventurer who cared for crusades but not for England. The story races inexorably toward Robin's fate, propelled by a lesson on the evils of publicity. Wildly talented Foreman's predominantly full-page watercolors are verdant, tangibly real with his touch of impressionism and shimmering with life. Margaret Early's Robin Hood (Abrams, 1996) sticks with the legend and her art is magnificent, but Robin of Sherwood will attract and thrill more kids.?Helen Gregory, Grosse Pointe Public Library,
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
