Author: Eileen Cameron
Publisher: Mascot Books
Rating: WORTHY!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review. The chance to read a new book is often enough reward aplenty!
This is an amazing story for children - not your usual bland stuff. It's a true story in a way, but of course it's fictionalized since no one actually recorded whose sons were there at Runnymede. Maybe it actually happened this way?
To begin with, I found myself wondering how many American kids would like this story. Could they relate to it? But then I found myself wondering how many English kids could. Finally I found myself realizing that if they were anything like me when I was a kid, they'd more than likely love it because it involves a true story, and kings and knights, and nobles and barons, and the secrets of the trade, so what's not to love - and learn from?
Rupert is the son of the parchment-maker (don't worry, it's all explained in this book). He's happy to help out and learn an important trade which will see him set up for later life. On the day soldiers show-up and deprive his dad of their hand-cart, some monks also show-up asking for the very best parchment Rupert's dad can supply. What's going on?
Rupert has no idea. His family is happy to make it from one day to the next. They're really not up on politics and royal intrigue. He is up for adventure, however, so he's thrilled to get the chance to travel along with the scribes to Runnymede where a bunch of irate noblemen are about to harangue the only English king to be named after a toilet, about injustices.
Rupert gets to see (and spy) first hand on the activities and to celebrate the resulting Great Charter which laid the foundations of a constitution for the nation, from which we could view distantly, had we the foresight, the earliest beginnings of a significant loss of royal power in Britain.
