The Accidental Highwayman by Ben Tripp
2014; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 68; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.2015.0021
ISSN1558-6766
Autores Tópico(s)Themes in Literature Analysis
ResumoReviewed by: The Accidental Highwayman by Ben Tripp Alaine Martaus Tripp, Ben The Accidental Highwayman; written and illus. by Ben Tripp. Tor, 2014 303p Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-7653-3549-4 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-4668-2263-4 $9.99 R* Gr. 6–9 Fictional editor and annotator Ben Tripp tells the story of sixteen-year-old acrobat-turned-servant Kit Bristol, who took up his master’s highwayman disguise and the reins of his magnificent horse Midnight only to find himself in the middle of a Faerie rebellion. Now Kit’s being chased across eighteenth-century Britain, pursued both by human soldiers, who want him dead for crimes he didn’t commit, and a pixie army, who want the Faerie princess he’s been charged with protecting. Kit finds help from a menagerie of strange yet talented traveling companions; disguised as a traveling circus, they make their way slowly across the countryside, dodging the law in a series of fantastic, spellbinding escapades. This delightful, rousing adventure in the spirit of quest fantasies like Goldman’s The Princess Bride and Gaiman’s Stardust will have readers cheering as poor, clueless Kit tumbles from one misadventure to the next. The caravan moves slowly, but the story does not, as each chapter brings magic, danger, and many a near-capture. Kit is an amusingly innocent narrator, who emerges as a hero worth rooting for, though his troop of memorable misfits nearly outshines him at every turn. The story-within-a-story structure manages to be both charming and unobtrusive, but the real strength here lies in the novel’s broad appeal, with its combination of wit and wonder, sword-fighting and spellcasting, friendships and seemingly doomed romance making it a likely hit with a variety of ages and readerships. Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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