The Letter for the King

Gr 9 Up—Originally published in Amsterdam in 1962, this work took Europe by storm winning several awards and translated in 16 languages. It is the story of a young man on the verge of becoming a knight. While spending his vigil with four other young men, a sudden knock at the chapel door reveals an elderly man who gives him a letter and begs him to deliver it to the Black Knight with the White Shield. Though he knows it may cost him his knighthood, Tiuri abandons his vigil and takes up the quest only to find the knight lying in a forest withterrible wounds. With his dying breath, the knight implores Tiuri to deliver the letter to King Unauwen. With enemies of the king on his trail, the teen must find the courage to complete his task and the faith that those who appear to be allies will not prove to be false. In spite of an excessive number of pages devoted to setting up the plot and describing the dangers involved in the quest, the story clips right along providing readers with plenty of cliff-hangers (literally). While this is an interesting adventure story, it's a little difficult to understand how this could have been such a mega-hit in the 60s. Still, the characters are appealing and the action will keep readers engaged.