The Kitchen Knight: A Tale of King Arthur Book

Here noble Gareth, King Arthur's nephew, is knighted by Sir Lancelot, vanquishes the dreaded knight of the Red Plain, and wins the hand of a fair maiden.

School Library Journal

Gr 3 Up-- While this tale is retold in most adaptations of Arthurian legend, it is not readily available in a single, lavishly illustrated version such as this one. The story is of Gareth of Orkney, Gawaine's brother, who hides his identity to serve a year as a kitchen boy in King Arthur's court, and his quest to the Perilous Gard in the company of Linette, who also hides her identity and reviles him throughout their journey to rescue her sister, Linesse. He falls in love at first distant sight of Linesse, who checks him out by kidnapping his dwarf, but decides he's worthy and agrees to marry him. There is a lot more to the story, of course, and Hodges gets in all the essentials that Malory included, leaving out some unexplained characters and repetitive battles. She also leaves out Gareth's comment that he doesn't listen to women, anyway. Just as well, even though it's a comment appropriate to its time, and quite telling about chivalry. Linesse's testing of a man who saved her life may be understood to be wise in a time when women were kidnapped and treated as property. The loose ends tend to be Malory's own. This does not tell in quite the straight line of Gawaine's adventure with the loathly damsel, told also by Chaucer's Wife of Bath. Hyman's richly romantic illustrations are lush watercolors, framed and broken with framed insets for closeups and framed text inside the panoramic picture. The format is horizontal, capturing the sweep of the story. While not a tale of King Arthur, it's a wonderful taste of Arthurian legend, hopefully whetting young appetites for more. --Helen Gregory, Grosse Pointe Public Library, MI