Tales of a Fifth-Grade Knight has the imagination and wallets of older elementary school or middle age students its sights. It’s based on a simple premise that you’ve certainly heard before but what makes the book really stand out is the through-the-looking glass world you experience once things go sideways. The chapters are around 12 pages so they’re too long for a good-night book, but just right for those school age children that we mentioned.
Isaac is staying after school to practice his part in the school play. His younger sister, Lily is there with him, as are two of his good friends, Max and Emma. Lily goes missing and the gang looks for her in the school’s basement.
It’s here where the book takes off from a standard plot that could’ve been stock young reader fodder into something fun, imaginative and very creative. The lakeweed that propels the boat forward, a giant ear with legs that helps them in the underworld and his friend the invisible boy are only some of the really creative creatures that they meet on their quest.
At times Tales of a Fifth-Grade Knight feels very Alice in Wonderland-ish for all the right reasons. The book doesn’t try to copy it; but the characters are immediately thrown into an upside down world this close to their reality, but is actually mysterious, weird and potentially dangerous.
Each chapter in Tales of a Fifth-Grade Knight is approximately 12 pages and young readers in the fourth through seventh will enjoy the book’s pace and parallels to real life. There’s a new world with strange creatures under a school? These kids have the same problems that we do. I sometimes fight with my little sister too.
Older readers will read the book very quickly, while younger readers will still be able to read it without any help from mom or dad. The book also opens up a new world that welcomes future stories, but if they’re as cute as Tales of a Fifth-Grade Knight then that’s OK.
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