I had never read a K.M. Peyton book before, but I knew that she wrote mainly about girls and horses or should it be the other way round. Well she has done it again and this time it is set in Roman Britain at a time when Roman civilisation is at its height and the barbarians are knocking on the door.Minna is a feisty, but hugely attractive girl on the verge of womanhood, and with the help of her brother she saves a newly born horse from certain death, when it is discarded by the Roman soldiers as a runt. The horse of course grows into a champion and the girl grows into a beautiful woman with a love interest in the handsome centurion who becomes head of the local garrison. To add some action we have a difficult older brother and barbarian raiders attacking the settlement from the sea. Heroes are found from all quarters.
A very readable book for horse lovers at intermediate level who like a bit of romance with their horses. But the history is not flash. I did in fact enjoy my first and last experience of K.M. Peyton
Reviewed by Bob
Published Usborne Publishing Ltd.
If you go to the Usborne Quicklinks page you can see some fantastic links for daily life in Roman Britain. If you find the link doesn't work click here and type "Minna's Quest" in the search box. It is a very interesting site and if you are doing Roman Britain as a topic, or even if you want to show the children an interesting site, the children will love it.
1 comments:
I haven't read Minna's Quest but K.M. Peyton is possibly best known for the Flambards series which probably did have horses (a long time since I read them), but were more memorable for their portrayal of early flying pioneers in England and then on through WWI and beyond. Was really about one family in that period but the flying bits are what has stuck with me. I really enjoyed them as a child although even then I remember some were stronger than others and I was probably too young to care about the soppy romantic bits.
My own children are getting up to an age where I will reread them and see if they are worth reading to them - I think the first one might read well out loud.
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