The Thirteenth Child by Patricia C Wrede

7 stars

Summary: Eff's father is a 7th son. Eff's twin brother, Lan, is the 7th son of a 7th son. As everyone knows, everything in life comes easier to them because they are blessed with good luck. Eff, on the other hand, is the 13th child which makes her unlucky and likely to grow up being evil and a menace. Eff's uncle never lets her forget it. She finally gets away from him when her family moves to the frontier of the wild west. There, near the Great Barrier magic spell set up by the Founding Fathers to keep Eastern Columbia (The United States) safe from magical creatures roaming the Old West, Eff struggles to overcome self-doubt and a concern that maybe her uncle was right.

Review: This is my first Patricia C Wrede book and I liked it. Its no masterpiece. It doesn't even have that fantastic of a plot and the climax is fairly short-lived. However, it is exactly what I expect a good book written for middle school kids to be. Its fun. Its creative. Its fairly fast-paced and entertaining to read.

Patricia Wrede creates an entire new history of the United States (known as Columbia in the book) where magic and all the magical creatures it brings with it have always existed. She doesn't try to explain that new history, she just acts as if its common knowledge and throws in enough information to make the world believable. Its that sort of writing that makes this book enjoyable. If I wanted to read amazing descriptions of a new world I would pick up Lord of the Rings.

Overall, the book was an enjoyable read written with creativity, good dialogue, and with interesting characters and interactions. Its a short read that would be good to pick up on a lazy summer weekend. Its something like 340 pages but with big font and easy language to follow.

Questing in Camelot

Lately I've been in the mood for Arthurian stories. Since I work at the library, I had easy to access to several books in the genre. I couldn't resist! I thought that I would do a single large post about them all, rather than a post about each.


Merlin and the Making of the King- Margaret Hodges

We'll start with one I didn't like as much. Although I like the illustrations in this one, I didn't much like the writing. I felt that the writing was a bit rushed, skipping over too much. In addition, this version focuses on the Christian elements of the Arthurian legends, which isn't my favorite. I don't really like mixing Christianity and magic together, so I generally prefer Arthurian storytelling that focuses on the magical elements over the Christian ones. I know its impossible to ignore it all together, what with things like the Holy Grail, but nonetheless I like it minimized.



Merlin and the Dragons by: Jane Yolen

A wonderful picture book about Merlin's past. Beautifully illustrated and accurately told, this is wonderful picture book. I enjoyed it! Good for young and older children as well as adults.











King Arthur by: Sir Thomas Mallory

One again, beautifully illustrated. The writing here is average. Along the far sides of the pages there are various facts about Arthurian legends and history to supplement the writing. Overall an enjoyable experience. I'd say the target audience is 8-12.












The Fall of Camelot by: "Time-Life Classics"

This is my favorite of the bunch. It is written for a more adult audience, but I enjoyed it's tone and flow quite a lot. In my opinion, the best written of the bunch. It also has some of my favorite illustrations.













King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table Sir Thomas Mallory

This one is more of a chapter book for preteens. The writing feels pretty bland in comparison to some of the others, but it still decent. There are a few scattered illustrations, but they are nothing special.













And that's it for now. I also have a book about the themes within Arthurian stories, and during my breaks at work I'm reading a compilation of relatively unknown or forgotten Arthurian legends. At some later date hopefully I can tell you about them.