Brave Young Knight

by Karen Kingsbury, Gabrielle Grimard (Illustrator)

Overview

In this picture book, Karen Kingsbury tells the story of a boy in competition with other young knights to become prince of all the land. In a series of contests and competitions, the king recognizes the brave young knight as the winner, not because he was the fastest or strongest, and not because he was smarter or more cunning than the other knights. Rather, the brave young knight is the winner because he doesn’t follow the crowd, instead making decisions based on what is right and true and in accordance with his faith. The moral of the story is that the bravest young boys are those who exhibit the strongest character.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310755135
Publisher:	Zonderkidz
Publication date:	02/02/2016
Sold by:	Zondervan Publishing
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	45 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

New York Times best-selling author Karen Kingsbury is America’s favorite inspirational novelist with over 20 million books in print. Her Life-Changing Fiction™ has produced multiple best sellers including Unlocked, Leaving, Take One, Between Sundays, Even Now, One Tuesday Morning, Beyond Tuesday Morning, and Ever After, which was named the 2007 Christian Book of the Year. An award-winning author and newly published songwriter, Karen has several movies optioned for production, and her novel Like Dandelion Dust was made into a major motion picture and is now available on DVD. Karen is also a nationally known speaker with several women’s groups including Women of Faith. She lives in Tennessee with her husband, Don, and their five sons, three of whom are adopted from Haiti. Their daughter Kelsey is married to Christian artist Kyle Kupecky.

Gabrielle Grimard has been drawing since she was a very young child. Born in Montreal, Canada, she studied Fine Arts at Concordia University. She began her career as a muralist, painting numerous walls in commercial buildings in the Montreal area. She now lives in the Eastern Townships with her chickens, two children, and husband, who is a wood boat builder. They share an old barn as their creative studio.

Read an Excerpt

Brave Young Knight

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By Karen Kingsbury

Zondervan

Copyright © 2011 Karen Kingsbury
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-310-71645-7

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Chapter One

Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. —Psalms 25:4-5

There once was a young knight who lived in a village on the west side of the kingdom. In the busy streets and cozy houses of the village everyone knew the young knight. He could run like the wind, carry a dog under each arm, and solve the toughest puzzles.

When the young knight passed by, people smiled and said, "Someday that knight will be named the best and bravest in the kingdom, and the west village will be honored."

One time, the young knight of the west village saw a woman carrying a load of bricks. The young knight hurried to her side. "Ma'am," he said, "may I carry your bricks?" Every day after that, the young knight met the woman at the brickyard and carried her bag of bricks until her house was built.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Brave Young Knight by Karen Kingsbury Copyright © 2011 by Karen Kingsbury. Excerpted by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

A quote from Psalm 25, "Show me your ways, O Lord," introduces the story of four knights from four villages vying for the honor of being "the bravest knight," in this companion to The Princess and the Three Knights. After tests of the knights' mental and physical skills, the winner will be crowned prince. While the knight from the "west" village, selected for his intelligence and kindness as much as his speed and strength, practices for each event and questions his ability to prevail, his father counsels him: "Follow God and he will help you run the race." Patchwork lawn, layered hills, and geometrical patterns on lattices, fabric, and woodwork decorate Grimard's medieval village scenes, showing both humble village huts and a turreted castle with streaming flags, while text appears against full-bleed full-page spreads of bright oranges, greens, and occasional white backdrops. Playful images add humor, such as the knight carrying armfuls of dogs to gain strength, but a lack of suspense mars the climactic scenes, as the knight's three competitors resort to trickery, while he alone honors the king's orders. A straightforward morality tale. Ages 4–7. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Kingsbury, a prolific author of Christian novels for adults, offers a story for younger readers about a courageous knight who competes to become prince of his homeland and heir to the throne. The competition pits four knights from different villages against one another as they face three challenges to test their speed, strength and intelligence. The dark-haired knight from the west village is introduced as a kind, hard-working young man who practices all these skills prior to the competition. His father encourages him along the way with comforting messages about God's support. During the challenges each of the other knights cheats in some way to gain an unfair advantage, so the king chooses the deserving knight from the west village as the winner of the contest. The story is wildly predictable and not particularly interesting, although the methods of cheating are inventive. The biggest drawback to the text is the lack of individual names for the knights, who are identified only by their village's direction, which leads to many repetitions of "the knight from the west village." Grimard's pleasant illustrations show a medieval world of castles, ornate costumes and flying banners. She depicts the winning knight as a serious young man who smiles only twice in the story, when he is carrying a little disabled boy who can't walk properly. Earnest, but that's probably not enough to captivate readers. (Picture book/religion. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews