The Book of Three

 Alexander, L. (1980). The book of three. Dell Publishing. (Original work published 1964). 224 pages. ISBN 0440907020

Primary genre: fantasy

Other elements: adventure, coming of age, humor, friendship 

Intended reader age: 8 and up

Synopsis:

Taran, newly appointed Assistant Pig-Keeper, leads a fairly uneventful life and is absolutely certain that a life of heroism and adventure awaits him. On the day that he receives his new title however, his charge (the ocular pig Hen-Wen) escapes and supplies Taran with just the chance he was hoping for. The Horned-King rides through Prydain gathering forces because he is set on ruling all and the only being in the land with the ability to undo his power and ruin his chances just happens to be the ocular pig Taran is in charge of protecting.

Review:

One of the aspects that I most enjoy in this story, and quite honestly all of the books in the series, is the inclusion of humor. Alexander really likes to poke fun at Taran because of how earnest Taran can be in his quest to prove himself a hero. It is the other characters that draw attention to these moments, which opens up the story to many different leveled readers. For those that may not pick up on Taran’s tendencies (or just feel the same) the comments from the other characters definitely point them out.

Elionwy is the main character that points out these instances to Taran because he is the one who always talks down to her. From the beginning Taran treats her like a child and he does this because he feels this is one way to establish himself as a grown-up. This treatment on Taran’s part does being to temper down towards the end of the story because Taran is learning and becoming more aware of what actions really make up the men and heroes he idolizes.

I think there is a great ability for readers to connect with Taran and grow with him because he is so very much a tween. He is tired of being treated like and viewed as a child, but there are times when his actions are very child-like. I think it was very smart of Alexander to have Taran be the one who finally pieced together everything that the adults were telling him. There were a number of people who told Taran what it takes to be things the he wanted, but like most tweens and teens, he did not believe them and felt that their experiences and observations had nothing to do with him.

The Book of Three introduces readers to the Chronicle of Prydain, which is a 5 book series. All of the books follow Taran through his continued adventures and growing understanding of what it means to become a man and a hero. This series does remind me often of The Chronicles of Narnia or even The Hobbit, a group of characters banding together to fight off the forces of evil.

 Another book with multiple covers; a particular draw for me when reading older works of literature is finding these other covers and noting the changes. The depictions of Taran seem to span young tween (the bottom right he looks like he could be as young as 10 or 11) to older teen (bottom left he looks 16-18 and the body language indicates older as well).