By Colorado Kids Advisory Board member William Coberly

Title: The Seeing Stone
Author: Kevin Crossley-Holland
Publisher: Scholastic Press

Fear not, fans of King Arthur, there are still authors writing about the ancient king. The Seeing Stone, by Kevin Crossley-Holland, is a great book which has its roots in Arthurian legend. This makes me happy, as I really like reading about Arthur Pendragon. The story is set in the latter part of 1199 and the beginning of 1200, during the reign of Richard I for the first part, and later under King John. The story tells about a boy named Arthur de Caldicot who has a lot of parallels with King Arthur. For instance, his father's friend is named Merlin, and Merlin becomes a good friend of Arthur de Caldicot's. De Caldicot is a nobleman (although he is
not a king) but he has a very just attitude towards the poor.

One day Merlin gives Arthur a stone in which he starts to see stories involving Excalibur's owner. It takes Arthur a while to realize that the two boys are connected. They look the same, their relatives look the same, and their experiences are similar. Arthur de Caldicot is 13, so he's going through the standard turmoils of a page wanting to become a squire. If that wasn't enough, his older brother Serle is not making life easy for
him, taunting him about not having the right stuff to be a squire, and just generally being a pain in the neck.

The book has one hundred short chapters, each a page to five pages long, so it really is more like entries in a journal than a novel. That's probably what Mr. Crossley-Holland was trying to do, as it is from Arthur de Caldicot's point of view, and he talks about writing this down. The Seeing Stone paints a great picture of England during the dark ages. Also, from what I can tell, it is fairly truthful to the historical events of the time.

I strongly recommend this book, but probably only for people ages 11 and up. Although it doesn't get into a lot of detail, it makes a couple of references to some rather adult things, and at one point Arthur describes length, width and depth by the in a mildly gory way, so it's not much of a 6 year old's book. There's nothing explicit, but the Middle Ages were not pleasant times. Other books like this are "Black Horses for the King," by Anne McCafferey and "The King's Shadow" by Elizabeth Alder. I suggest The Seeing Stone for anyone interested in medieval England and/or King Arthur. (January, 2002)