Book Review |
Arthur The Seeing Stone |
By
Kevin Crossley-Holland |
| The Seeing Stone
is the first book in the Arthur series and I enjoyed it thoroughly! It is well written in the style of an episodic autobiography and seems to show us "windows" into Arthur's life rather than showing us all of it. The author (Kevin Crossley - Holland) makes you feel that you really are in medieval times. He does this by describing their armour and their kind of court. For instance, he tells us that their way of dealing with theft is to cut off the thief's thieving hand. The Seeing Stone is written along two lines. One part is about the life of a boy called Arthur, who lives with his family and all the other people who live on his Father's manor. The other part is about the life of a boy in Arthur's "seeing stone." Arthur's "seeing stone" is a large chunk of black shiny rock called obsidian. When he warms the rock in the palms of his hands, he can see pictures and stories in it. As Arthur spends more time with his stone, he finds that things that happen in the stone start to happen in his life. The stone seems to be like a twisted mirror or a parallel life which shows him what may happen in his life. It also seems to twist these insights into his future life so that they become a set of separate stories on their own. The stone also seems to add parts of the story in the stone which do not relate to his life or the real world at all. This seems to be quite creepy and eerie because you begin to feel that the stone might suck him in. I would consider it a bad omen if the "Arthur-in-the-stone" died because it may mean that the real Arthur was going to die. Arthur is a kind, caring boy and always hopes to please people. He gets on very well with people but he sometimes seems to be a bit of a wimp because he lets his brother bully him, use him and walk on him. Arthur can also be quite naive because his brother holds secrets which are so obvious to find out yet he is still not sure if they are true when they are virtually written up in bright bold letters on every wall of the manor! Arthur's sole dream is to become a squire and then to be knighted and he becomes very worried when he is told that he was good enough at his writing skills to become a schoolman (monk). He fears that his father may not choose him to be a squire. Join Arthur as he journeys through his life and witness all the amazing things he encounters. The chapters in The Seeing Stone are mostly quite short yet this does not spoil the quality and flow of the text that much. I enjoyed the book a lot though it is hard to follow in places and I think that Kevin Crossley-Holland must have an excellent imagination to be able to describe parts of a medieval boy's life so well! His writing spellbound me and I have been nagging my parents to get me the sequel. Unfortunately they keep telling me to, "wait till it comes out in paper- back!" Iestyn Evans October 2001 |
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