Knight's Fee

Knight's Fee is the story of a boy, Randal, with no family who cares for and lives with the dogs in the earliest days of England as a united country. He accidentally drops a half-eaten pear onto the lord of the castle, and he is almost flogged to death until a minstrel takes pity on him and offers the lord a wager the lord can't resist.

Knight's Fee is a book that took me a good three chapters to get into, and, even then, parts of it were hard going because of the vocabulary of the times. Once I got into it, though, I could not put it down.

In some important ways, this story reminded me of The Little White Horse, another 1001 Kids book. Both books explore the idea of home, and both books see the process is rooted in an almost mystical experience. Both books also explore the idea of kinship and friendship, and, again, both books see that process is rooted in an almost mystical experience as well.

A 1001 Children's Book You Must Read.