Mike the Knight is someone we've only recently got to know. For those of you that are not familiar with him – he's a Knight in Training who lives in CBeebies-land here in the UK. A wiki search tells me he might actually be Canadian, but I somehow had it in my head that all knights were English, so that's what I'm choosing to believe for now.
To tie in with a new series having started on CBeebies this year two new Mike the Knight books have been released by Simon and Schuster and we were sent a copy of Mike the Knight and the Real Sword
to review.
In the story, Mike is due to have his portrait painted and he's determined to look like a true knight in it so he asks his sister Evie (a wizard in training) to change his enchanted sword (which is currently in the form of a fishing rod) back into a real sword as that would look better in the picture. As she's only a wizard in training though Evie's spell doesn't quite work out as planned and Mike is forced to behave as a real knight would in the circumstances.
For any child who is a fan of the TV series this book is a lovely accompaniment. The only problem I have is actually with the design layout inside the book. Much of the font is written over coloured, patterned backgrounds and is black in colour. Whilst this is fine on a yellow or red background a blue patterned background really doesn't work well at all, especially in a dimly-lit child's bedroom at bedtime. Cue quite a bit of frustration from Little Miss C as I had to keep asking her to move the book so I could actually read it properly. A shame. Probably one of those things that looked fine on a computer screen or in a brightly-lit office, but not in poorer lighting conditions.
Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of Mike the Knight and the Real Sword to review by Simon and Schuster.
Mike the Knight and the Real Sword
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-47111-591-2
Price £5.99
Published 31 January 2013
I am in the middle of writing a review of this book and that whole black text on busy background was the one thing that I didn’t like about the book! I can’t read it in Ozzys bedroom with the ordinarily bright enough lamp on!
Sort of glad Im not the only one who found it hard going!