The Misadventures of Don Quixote

Gr 1–4—In this abbreviated version of the cautionary tale, readers are introduced to Don Quixote's imagination and adventures. An avid reader, he convinces himself that the characters in his books are real. He imagines himself as a knight, a girl in a nearby village as his lady, his old horse as a steed, and his uneducated neighbor as his knight-errant. In a series of slapstick incidents, he fights a windmill, a flock of sheep, some wineskins, and a tired lion. When Don Quixote's relatives worry about his long absence, they send a student out in disguise to challenge him to a duel that he is certain to lose, and the terms are that upon his loss, he must return to his village. The illustrations are caricatures, with Sancho Panza and Don Quixote's horse portrayed as constantly dumbfounded. The illustrator initials each page, and the result is distracting. The layout is such that several pages seem cramped with too much text. Although much of the vocabulary and many of the situations will have to be explained, young readers who enjoy knights and humor might enjoy this first foray into this classic tale.—Stacy Dillon, LREI, New York City