Cover Image

Here lies Arthur

by Reeve, Philip.

Format: Print Book 2008
Availability: Available at 5 Libraries 5 of 5 copies

Available (5)
Location Collection Call #
ACLA Mobile Library Services Teen Fiction YA F REEV
Location  ACLA Mobile Library Services
 
Collection  Teen Fiction
 
Call Number  YA F REEV
 
 
CLP - Squirrel Hill Teen Fiction TEEN FICTION Reeve
Location  CLP - Squirrel Hill
 
Collection  Teen Fiction
 
Call Number  TEEN FICTION Reeve
 
 
Community Library of Allegheny Valley - Harrison Young Adult Fiction YA REEVE
Location  Community Library of Allegheny Valley - Harrison
 
Collection  Young Adult Fiction
 
Call Number  YA REEVE
 
 
Penn Hills Library Juvenile Fiction CHILDREN REE
Location  Penn Hills Library
 
Collection  Juvenile Fiction
 
Call Number  CHILDREN REE
 
 
South Park Library Juvenile jF REE
Location  South Park Library
 
Collection  Juvenile
 
Call Number  jF REE
 
 

Summary
Welcome to the dark side of Camelot.

Gwynna is just a girl who is forced to run when her village is attacked and burns to the ground. To her horror, she is discovered in the wood. But it is Myrddin the bard who has found her, a traveler and spinner of tales. He agrees to protect Gwynna if she will agree to be bound in service to him. Gwynna is frightened but intrigued-and says yes-for this Myrddin serves the young, rough, and powerful Arthur. In the course of their travels, Myrddin transforms Gwynna into the mysterious Lady of the Lake, a boy warrior, and a spy. It is part of a plot to transform Arthur from the leader of (con't)
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "*Starred Review* Powerfully inventive, yet less romanticized than most stories set in the medieval Britain, this novel retells the story of King Arthur from a fresh perspective. Readers first glimpse Gwyna, the novel's disarming narrator, as a snot-nosed girl hiding in the brambles from a marauding band of brutes led by Arthur, the King that Was and Will Be. Taken under the wing of the king's bard and advisor, Myddrin (the Merlin figure), who disguises her first as a lad and then as that fictional lad's half sister, Gwyna takes part in or observes many significant scenes, from the day Arthur takes the sword offered by a lady beneath a lake until the day of his death. In Gwyna's telling, many traditionally esteemed characters are revealed as unworthy, and some reviled ones are shown as heroic. Seemingly supernatural elements of the storied events are shown to be mere conjuring tricks, while the most magical power that Myddrin wields is the creative storytelling that shapes history into legend and makes it immortal. Events rush headlong toward the inevitable ending, but Gwyna's observations illuminate them in a new way. Arthurian lore has inspired many novels for young people, but few as arresting or compelling as this one.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2008 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "The last word is "Hope," yet Reeve (Mortal Engines) injects deep cynicism into every other phrase of this Arthurian fable. As he tells it, Myrddin the "enchanter" is a charlatan of high degree, possessing no magic but a mastery of storytelling and fraud. Gwyna, the narrator, is perhaps nine years old when Myrddin sees her swim down a river to escape a house set afire by callous, marauding warlord Arthur. Myrddin promptly disguises her first as the Lady of the Lake and then as a boy apprentice. Gwyna soon learns to trust no one, doubt everything and scorn both male and female roles. She even becomes skeptical of the empire-building ambition behind Myrddin's efforts to recast Arthur's unremarkable exploits as the stuff of legend. Nodding to canon and history while not particularly following either (Lancelot and Morgan le Fay are notably absent), Reeve, like Myrddin, turns hallowed myth and supple prose to political purposes, neatly skewering the modern-day cult of spin and the age-old trickery behind it. Smart teens will love this. Ages 12-up. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Arthur, -- King -- Juvenile fiction.
Arthur, -- King -- Fiction.
Bards and bardism -- Juvenile fiction.
Magic -- Juvenile fiction.
Bards and bardism -- Fiction.
Magic -- Fiction.
Great Britain -- History -- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066 -- Juvenile fiction.
Great Britain -- History -- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066 -- Fiction.
Publisher New York :Scholastic Press,2008
Edition 1st American ed.
Language English
Description 339 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN 9780545093347 (hardcover : alk. paper) :
0545093341 (hardcover : alk. paper) :
9780545094634 (pbk.)
Other Classic View