King Leo & Princess Storm Save The Day In Dorling Kindersley’s “Castle Under Attack”!

I doubt I have to confess my love of Lego sets or Dorling Kindersley books; past reviews of both should speak for themselves. Add to that the fact that my kids are also Lego fanatics and loved reading from an early age. When we first saw the Lego Reader series we all looked at each other, raised our eyebrows and grabs as many copies as we could find. Most of them were designed for younger readers but that didn’t stop the boys from checking them out and getting a lot of ideas for building new vehicles, ships, cities and of course castles. “Castle Under Attack” is a level two reader that written for kids that are beginning to read alone. The DK Readers are broken up into four classifications so if this one seems to be above or below your childs reading level, there are others available [both in and out of the Lego theme].

Castle Under Attack

It’s a beautiful day in King Leo’s land; everyone is preparing for a huge feast but King Leo and Queen Leonora both know that there’s one thing that could ruin the festivities – Cedric The Bull! Everyone knew that Cedric would be planning an attack so even while they were preparing for the festival, they never let their guard down. Just as they suspected, Cedric and his second in command, Gilbert The Bad, sounded the horn to launch their attack. Cedric wasn’t exactly the smartest or bravest of leaders, he let his men do the dirty work while he tried to take the glory. One part of the book I thought was totally hilarious was when they were climbing the attack tower and the Kings men dumped smelly food and horse poop on the [in the book it’s called ‘horse droppings’] attacking forces. When the King arrives back at the castle he starts looking for the princess, but where could she be?

Cedric thought he had the battle won when he spotted King Leo lost in the forest but it was a trick! While they were loading a catapult to attack the castle King Leo jumped out of the woods to surprise them. It turns out Sir Richard was wearing the Kings clothes to fool them, and their plan worked perfectly! Princess Storm, previously kidnapped by Cedric, also jumps out of the woods and the day is saved. One of the best parts of the book is seeing Cedric, Gilbert and all their men locked up in the dungeon, everyone had a reason to celebrate because they knew that no one else would be bothering them on the day of their grand feast. But there is a catch, whilst imprisoned Cedric said, “in a horrible whisper” ”Just you wait, King Leo, just you wait!”. This leaves the book open to a continuation but as of yet, there’s been no mention of one in the works.

Outside of the great story, illustrations and new words that kids will be introduced to there are small text boxes every few pages that help to explain some of the things that kids are being exposed to. These include weapons, castles, tournaments, women’s roles and forests. These are nice little things that are added to the book to broaden a childs leaning experience and since they are reading about something they love, they don’t even think about it being the slightest bit educational [but it really is!]. The book closes out with a page of knight and castle facts; these talk about the cost of armor, when knights started their training, early castles and the Middle Ages.


Illustrations

The images you see in the book are great but sometimes its hard to tell if they are computer generated or if they are real Lego figures. One glace at the back cover and you’ll have your answer, it’s all computer generated. Being a Lego junkie there are some things that I didn’t like; an example of this is when they are showing the kids getting washed up for the feast. They show a small child and the figure is smaller than normal – all standard Lego figures are the same size. Another thing is that the inside of the tournament horse covers are detailed, that’s not the case with the ones you get in the set. This is sort of misleading in my opinion, if a kid saw this set and assumed that there were different sized figures in the Knights Kingdom series, they might be really disappointed when they saw they were all the same size. Maybe I am being too hard on the illustrator [Roger Harris] because outside of some small things that I mentioned, the images you see really help reinforce what you are reading.

Things To Know

• This is a hard covered book with a suggested retail price of $12.95. If you are a Lego fanatic then this price won’t really bother you but for those that aren’t really into it, you may want to check places like eBay for books that are selling for less than the cover price. You can also check the Lego World Shop, from time to time they offer some of their book titles at half off.

• The story and Lego figures that are featured in the story come from the Knights Kingdom series. While the series is no longer in production, there are many sets still available at online auction sites.

The Bottom Line

This is a great read for kids who are into Lego sets and are starting to read on their own. The illustrations really help explain what is going on from page to page so if they get stuck on a word, chances are they can figure it out from looking at the pictures. I really wish Lego would expand their book selection because this is a great way to get kids motivated to read, learn new words and have a little adventure. The price of the book might seen a little high so be sure to look for it at online auctions or check your local library to see if they carry any of the Lego Readers.


As always, thanks for the read!

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2005 Freak369


Other great book picks for kids …

Secret at Dolphin Bay – A Lego Reader Book
Mystery Mission: Disney's Atlantis the Lost Empire
The Hallo-Wiener
Eyewitness Junior “Amazing Bats”
Weslandia



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