Historical Fiction

The Bravest Knight

By: Mercer Mayer

Dial Publishing Company 2007

32 Pages

Historical Fiction

I chose this book because I have heard of how Mercer Mayer is a 

wonderful author and illustrator! I have read a few of his books, one of them being, "There's a Nightmare in My Closet." When I found this book in my mothers school library I was ecstatic! I could hardly wait to read it! This book is a tale of a small child living in a fairy-tale. He imagined himself to be a brave knight thousands of years ago. Some of the bad knights were forced to pick flowers for the king, while the bravest knight in all of the land fights a fire-breathing dragon using only his slingshot.

    Mayer does a wonderful job of illustrating this book. The colors are so vivid and the pictures are great to tell this exact story. The illustrations are perfect for sharing with a group of students. I know from experience how upset a child can become if they are unable to see the pictures! The artwork is done using a double-page format. The medium used to create the beautiful artwork is watercolors.

     This book would be appropriate for children from preschool to about third grade. I love how this book can also be used across many different grades. This would be great for any teacher to have in his or her collection. This would be a great book to use when talking about history. No, the story is not true and there were not any dragons to fight but the mid evil times were real and this story tells a lot about the characteristics of this era. Students could also use this book to learn about beginning, middle and end. The students even as young as kindergarten could retell this story using a retelling rope with pictures to accommodate the younger group. Teachers could also use this book in a language arts lesson. Students would be expected to come up with their own dream that happened in the distant future. Students would be expected to create a story line as a class or individually if it was used in an older classroom. This book has no awards to mention.