The Once and Future King

by T.H. White

The Once and Future King is the story of King Arthur, beginning with Arthur as a child known as the Wart and telling his tale through his life until he is an old man. It is subdivided into smaller books, the first of which is The Sword in the Stone. I think that the first minibook is the best and it is my favourite... after that, the story gets longer and less interesting. The beginning is awesome--adventure after adventure, with Merlyn turning the Wart into all sorts of different creatures. As the story goes on, however, Mr. White gets wordier and wordier, dragging on the smallest points and taking a roundabout route to return to the actual plot. Since libraries and bookstores do carry just The Sword in the Stone all by itself, I'd recommend it, but not the whole book.

The Once and Future King also falls under the same category as Animal Farm and 1984: not for younger children. The original tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table tends to be a bit graphic at times, and also contains some things that people under the age of twelve don't really need to know. Otherwise, it's an interesting story, though I'd suggest reading only The Sword in the Stone.

When I saw that this was on my summer reading list I had no idea what it was. Upon opening it, I found that the first section was a story that I knew and loved, The Sword in the Stone. I fully expected the rest of the novel to live up to the same standards and was bitterly disappointed to see that it did not.