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A review by iamshadow
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
5.0
I first read [author: Lloyd Alexander] when I was around fourteen, and not again for thirteen years, so reading [book: The Book of Three] has been very much a journey of total discovery for me.
While some stories can go on for hundreds of pages and feel too simplistic, this book goes for barely over 150 pages, and in this case, it works. It's a simple story of adventure based in Welsh myth, legend and history, and it doesn't feel like it needs hundreds of pages of exposition. It just is what it is. The characters leap from the page with little introduction. They are instantly familiar without being overdrawn. The reader can identify with Taran, the youth wishing to prove himself and become a man, with the stuck-up but good-hearted chatterbox Eilonwy, and with Fflewddur, the timid bard who has an unfortunate (but never malicious) habit of exaggerating the truth.
There are children everywhere (and is a child in all of us) that would benefit from reading (or rereading) The Book of Three and its four sequels. There's something in them for everyone.
While some stories can go on for hundreds of pages and feel too simplistic, this book goes for barely over 150 pages, and in this case, it works. It's a simple story of adventure based in Welsh myth, legend and history, and it doesn't feel like it needs hundreds of pages of exposition. It just is what it is. The characters leap from the page with little introduction. They are instantly familiar without being overdrawn. The reader can identify with Taran, the youth wishing to prove himself and become a man, with the stuck-up but good-hearted chatterbox Eilonwy, and with Fflewddur, the timid bard who has an unfortunate (but never malicious) habit of exaggerating the truth.
There are children everywhere (and is a child in all of us) that would benefit from reading (or rereading) The Book of Three and its four sequels. There's something in them for everyone.