What do you think?
Rate this book
Tales of Magic #2
Knight's Castle
When the ancient toy soldier comes alive, the Old One grants Roger's wish to adventure in "yeomanly" Sherwood Forest. Will Roger earn his second wish, to save his father? Need for an operation brings Roger 11 and younger Ann to stay with bossy cousin Eliza and Jack. Can the children convince Ivanhoe to marry Rebecca over Rowena, and conquer the castle - in pjs?
198 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
115 people are currently reading
2120 people want to read
About the author
Edward Eager
29 books324 followersEager was born in and grew up in Toledo, Ohio and attended Harvard University, class of 1935. After graduation, he moved to New York City, where he lived for 14 years before moving to Connecticut. He married Jane Eberly in 1938 and they had a son, Fritz.
Eager was a childhood fan of L. Frank Baum's Oz series, and started writing children's books when he could not find stories he wanted to read to his own young son. In his books, Eager often acknowledges his debt to E. Nesbit, whom he thought of as the best children's author of all time.
A well-known lyricist and playwright, Eager died on October 23, 1964 in Stamford, Connecticut, at the age of fifty-three.
Eager was a childhood fan of L. Frank Baum's Oz series, and started writing children's books when he could not find stories he wanted to read to his own young son. In his books, Eager often acknowledges his debt to E. Nesbit, whom he thought of as the best children's author of all time.
A well-known lyricist and playwright, Eager died on October 23, 1964 in Stamford, Connecticut, at the age of fifty-three.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 278 reviews
August 11, 2016
Great fun, just like the first in the series! And if you’re a fan of knights, castles, and medieval-type adventures, you might like it even better!
Like Half Magic, this is a magical adventure story featuring four kids. Like Half Magic, the kids aren’t quite in control of the magic, so it takes some funny twists and turns. And also like Half Magic, there’s character growth at the end, which adds depth to all the fun.
One thing about Edward Eager – he likes literary references. The nature of this magic is just like E. Nesbit's The Magic City – a world of toys that comes to life. Eager is completely open about that; the girls in the book are even reading The Magic City at the beginning. The other literary influences are Ivanhoe and Robin Hood. I’ve never read either one – I just knew the characters from movies – but I think I’ll put them on my to-read list now!
My boys adored this book and were literally jumping out of bed at the end, but there are enough strong female characters to give it plenty of appeal to girls, and adults who love fantasy, good writing, and good humor will love it, too. Just make sure you read Half Magic first. There’s a surprise connection, but I wouldn’t dare spoil it for you!
Like Half Magic, this is a magical adventure story featuring four kids. Like Half Magic, the kids aren’t quite in control of the magic, so it takes some funny twists and turns. And also like Half Magic, there’s character growth at the end, which adds depth to all the fun.
One thing about Edward Eager – he likes literary references. The nature of this magic is just like E. Nesbit's The Magic City – a world of toys that comes to life. Eager is completely open about that; the girls in the book are even reading The Magic City at the beginning. The other literary influences are Ivanhoe and Robin Hood. I’ve never read either one – I just knew the characters from movies – but I think I’ll put them on my to-read list now!
My boys adored this book and were literally jumping out of bed at the end, but there are enough strong female characters to give it plenty of appeal to girls, and adults who love fantasy, good writing, and good humor will love it, too. Just make sure you read Half Magic first. There’s a surprise connection, but I wouldn’t dare spoil it for you!
March 8, 2023
Roger and Ann's father is ill, and Roger wishes on an ancient lead soldier toy for his father to be healed. But the magical lead soldier tells Roger that wishes must be earned, and Roger, his sister, and their cousins are swept into an adventure of derring-do in the Merry England of Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, and King Richard the Lionheart.
The moment Roger arrives in this magical land, everything seems to go wrong despite his good intentions! Roger begins to doubt that he can ever do enough good deeds to earn a wish for his father, and it's only when he relies on his sister and cousins that the adventure truly begins to come together with surprising results for everyone.
This writer is so brilliant! I love his stories, especially because they are written in the tradition of E. Nesbit's magical books. Every page is so hilarious and fun! The characters are loveable and courageous. You never know what crazy magical thing is going to happen.
I read this entire book in one day. This would be so perfect to read aloud, because so many of the words are rich-sounding, and the dialogue would be so much fun to act out with voices!
August 11, 2018
Eager is the American answer to Edith Nesbit, and all his fantasies for children, including this one, are irresistibly funny. Knight's Castle is the sort of book you'll enjoy if you like books where medieval knights learn to play baseball and venerate a mysterious object that turns out to be a large can of soup. Robin Hood and Ivanhoe make an appearance, and there are echoes of The Borrowers and the Narnia books.
September 29, 2013
Roger, a boy with a magical talking toy soldier that has been passed through his family, and his sister, Ann learn that their father is sick. As a result, they have to go to stay with their cousins, Jack and Eliza in Baltimore, Maryland. Every night they have adventures with magical toy knights. The Knight's Castle is a wonderful story full of adventure and fantasy. In the world of the toy soldiers, anything can happen if you wish it hard enough. The Knight's Castle belongs in a series (With Half Magic, Magic by the Lake, Magic or Not, etc.)
The characters in this book are fun and adventurous. I really enjoyed reading about them. The author explains aspects if the characters in short bits. For example, the book says about a Roger and Ann's cousin Jack, "He had his camera well in hand and was focusing on some rather uninteresting murals on the station ceiling" (pg. 22). I found this funny, because Jack really likes his camera. He even wants to see a movie about wheat growing because of the interesting camera angles it provides.
The various places in this book are really entertaining. For example, when the cousins make a magic city out of an assortment of household objects, the knights have things like flying saucers and cars when the children go back.
I think anybody who likes fantasy or stories about knights would enjoy this book. I would recommend it to anyone who likes the series it belongs in.
The characters in this book are fun and adventurous. I really enjoyed reading about them. The author explains aspects if the characters in short bits. For example, the book says about a Roger and Ann's cousin Jack, "He had his camera well in hand and was focusing on some rather uninteresting murals on the station ceiling" (pg. 22). I found this funny, because Jack really likes his camera. He even wants to see a movie about wheat growing because of the interesting camera angles it provides.
The various places in this book are really entertaining. For example, when the cousins make a magic city out of an assortment of household objects, the knights have things like flying saucers and cars when the children go back.
I think anybody who likes fantasy or stories about knights would enjoy this book. I would recommend it to anyone who likes the series it belongs in.
December 30, 2008
A mid 20th century children's classic. I read this because it was there. At the time I was making my way through The English Patient; oh wait I am still making my way through The English Patient!
Anyhow, any book that fell in my path that was not The English Patient had a good chance of being read. This one my son had left in my room. So I read it because it wasn't The English Patient!
Really a delightful and whimsical story. I appreciated the nod to the greatest of children's fantasy writers, E. Nesbit. Yes, I said E. Nesbit, not Rowling or Lewis or L'Engle or.... The idea of Ivanhoe debauched by pulp science fiction was a hoot.
That said, this is definitely a children's book and needs to be read as such. Unlike some children's fiction that can be read and appreciated by adults as something more, here I am thinking of Randall Jarrell's The Animal Family , Knight's Castle is 100% for kid's, and I like that about it.
Anyhow, any book that fell in my path that was not The English Patient had a good chance of being read. This one my son had left in my room. So I read it because it wasn't The English Patient!
Really a delightful and whimsical story. I appreciated the nod to the greatest of children's fantasy writers, E. Nesbit. Yes, I said E. Nesbit, not Rowling or Lewis or L'Engle or.... The idea of Ivanhoe debauched by pulp science fiction was a hoot.
That said, this is definitely a children's book and needs to be read as such. Unlike some children's fiction that can be read and appreciated by adults as something more, here I am thinking of Randall Jarrell's The Animal Family , Knight's Castle is 100% for kid's, and I like that about it.
March 17, 2024
I checking out Half Magic from the library at school when I was young, maybe seven or eight. I took it home and read it cover to cover that night; I couldn't wait to go back to the library and see what else was on the shelf by this author. I'm not sure if our library had all seven books in the series, but I definitely found Knight's Castle and at least two more of the Eager books---these were my favorite books for many years, and I still feel a sense of delight at rereading them sixty years later.
Knight's Castle is the story of the children of the children in Half Magic, cousins who are unexpectedly and unwillingly thrown together when a parent is hospitalized. The children are given some wonderful toys to occupy themselves during this difficult time, and the favorite toy is quickly found to be an enormous toy castle. One of the children, Roger, has brought his soldiers from home with him, and it is one of the toy soldiers, an old family possession, that first shares magic with the children.
I loved Half Magic and I loved Knight's Castle when I first read them, but rereading them as a grownup is an even richer, more fun experience.
Knight's Castle is the story of the children of the children in Half Magic, cousins who are unexpectedly and unwillingly thrown together when a parent is hospitalized. The children are given some wonderful toys to occupy themselves during this difficult time, and the favorite toy is quickly found to be an enormous toy castle. One of the children, Roger, has brought his soldiers from home with him, and it is one of the toy soldiers, an old family possession, that first shares magic with the children.
I loved Half Magic and I loved Knight's Castle when I first read them, but rereading them as a grownup is an even richer, more fun experience.
April 21, 2009
This is my second Eager book. This author is really a kick! He even puts a tongue-in-cheek reference to a Keats poem ("La belle dame sans merci") in one of his descriptions of a knight in the book. And then there's the kooky and completely delightful hodge-podge story itself, which includes a re-telling of the Ivanhoe story in a way that has to delight fans of Sir Walter Scott (even the purists!) Where else would you find Ivanhoe dumping the annoying Rowena and meeting up again with the sympathetic Rebecca? And having a bunch of modern-day kids intermingling in the story's zaniness! Oh, and I loved the quote by the character Eliza: "You don't still play 'Authors', do you?...that's almost as babyish as 'Old Maid'!" (I got a great chuckle from that, since 'Authors' is one of my all-time favorite games!) What a fun treat. Now, (eventually) on to the next book in the series!
October 30, 2009
This has been the best of Eager's books so far. I think it appealed even more to me because it focuses so much on knights, castles, and even Robin Hood (confession: Robin Hood is probably my favorite Disney movie ever). Eager has also put in several funny things for adults to catch, too. Another one that I'm eager (yuk yuk) to share with my kids.
Rating: G.
Rating: G.
September 1, 2025
Picked this one up on a whim at a thrift store to give it a whirl. Didn't realize it was the second book in a series and feel sort of ridiculous having to confess this is my first Eager. WHAT FUN! Absolutely loved it and will seek the others in this set out.
Magic, whimsy, humor, knights and castles . . . it's all there.
Magic, whimsy, humor, knights and castles . . . it's all there.
December 13, 2022
even better than the first. and funnily enough, this book was the only reason i understood ivanhoe in english class.
August 13, 2017
After reading most of the Tales of Magic series now, I have to admit that I prefer the older generation's dynamic to the younger one. The cousins squabble so much that it gets in the way of the adventures.
http://pussreboots.com/blog/2017/comm...
http://pussreboots.com/blog/2017/comm...
April 1, 2014
I had forgotten that I had read this ages ago, back before I'd actually read Ivanhoe. (What sparked my memory was, oddly, Sir George Peabody.) What a great series this is, and of course Rebecca is way better than Rowena. :-)
Read
January 31, 2013I loved revisiting this old friend! Made me want to do a complete Edward Eager re-read.
May 5, 2017
This one jumps ahead 30 years from the previous book - it's good, but definitely not my favorite of the series.
October 4, 2022
At 11 Roger really is too old to be playing with toy soldiers but when he learns his father must go into the hospital right away and have surgery, he feels worried enough to grab one of his father's family heirloom lead soldiers to take to bed with him. While worrying away, he begins to feel the soldier warm up in his hands and imagines the Old One speaking to him. Surely he just imagined it? Roger and his little sister Ann must move in with their bossy cousins while their mother is busy tending to their father in the hospital. Aunt Katherine is very kind and takes the kids to the movies to see Ivanhoe which appeals to Roger's obsession with "yeomanly times." She also provides Ann with a new dollhouse and Roger with a castle filled with knights. One night, while Roger is sleeping, he awakens to find himself in a miniature world of Saxons vs. Normans, Ivanhoe, Robin Hood and battles of good and evil. Unfortunately, he unwittingly turns the story on its head and accidentially ends up back in bed. When the other kids learn of his adventures, they want to come too but the magic only works in threes. Can they find their way back? Can Roger fix the story and make everything right again?
This is another cute story heavily inspired by E. Nesbit, Ivanhoe and The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood with a healthy dose of Renaissance Faire and a sprinkle of classic literature. I didn't catch them all but there's a section based on Goldilocks and I caught one quote from Jane Austen's Mansfield Park and possible direct allusions to Fanny Price vs. Mary Crawford. Or perhaps that was likely Sir Walter Scott's doing. Since the book was published in the 1950s I had to preread to see it it holds up to modern values. At first I found it rather sexist when Roger dimisses his sister, Ann is given a dollhouse, Rebecca is the ministering angel and Rowena is the evil temptress. Then as the story goes along, it turns some of those old tropes on their head. The children all learn moral lessons in the end but the moral doesn't quite hit you on the head. It's not super didactic which I appreciate.
The kids are pretty two-dimensional. Roger is the main character and he's the most fleshed out. Ann has to go on a journey and her character development happens very quickly at the end of the novel. Eliza is "bossy" and too old for dollhouses and the oldest cousin is 13 and obsessed with his Leica camera. Once they start having adventures, they feel a little bit more realistic but they're still pretty flat. If you're wondering what happened to the kids in Half Magic, they're now grown with children of their own. Martha is the mother of Roger and Ann. Katherine is the mother of the cousins. Jane is in London for the Coronation! Aww! Mark is only mentioned by name once. It was fun to see the children as adults and get their perspective on their adventures, which they haven't told their children about!
This book would be best read aloud because the medieval characters speak old timey like forsooth! and have inverted sentence structure to make them seem old timey. It holds up though and doesn't seem 1950s dated at all. I hope modern children stil enjoy this series as much as I did when I was in elementary school!
This is another cute story heavily inspired by E. Nesbit, Ivanhoe and The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood with a healthy dose of Renaissance Faire and a sprinkle of classic literature. I didn't catch them all but there's a section based on Goldilocks and I caught one quote from Jane Austen's Mansfield Park and possible direct allusions to Fanny Price vs. Mary Crawford. Or perhaps that was likely Sir Walter Scott's doing. Since the book was published in the 1950s I had to preread to see it it holds up to modern values. At first I found it rather sexist when Roger dimisses his sister, Ann is given a dollhouse, Rebecca is the ministering angel and Rowena is the evil temptress. Then as the story goes along, it turns some of those old tropes on their head. The children all learn moral lessons in the end but the moral doesn't quite hit you on the head. It's not super didactic which I appreciate.
The kids are pretty two-dimensional. Roger is the main character and he's the most fleshed out. Ann has to go on a journey and her character development happens very quickly at the end of the novel. Eliza is "bossy" and too old for dollhouses and the oldest cousin is 13 and obsessed with his Leica camera. Once they start having adventures, they feel a little bit more realistic but they're still pretty flat. If you're wondering what happened to the kids in Half Magic, they're now grown with children of their own. Martha is the mother of Roger and Ann. Katherine is the mother of the cousins. Jane is in London for the Coronation! Aww! Mark is only mentioned by name once. It was fun to see the children as adults and get their perspective on their adventures, which they haven't told their children about!
This book would be best read aloud because the medieval characters speak old timey like forsooth! and have inverted sentence structure to make them seem old timey. It holds up though and doesn't seem 1950s dated at all. I hope modern children stil enjoy this series as much as I did when I was in elementary school!
November 11, 2019
This is a simple little tale of a group of children who discover a little bit of magic in an old toy soldier. In Eager’s work, magic has fairly strict rules (in Half-Magic, the charm granted any wish–but only in halves), and here the rules work as a kind of companion to the idea that magic can only work if you continue to believe in it (that is, if you start to think of the creatures you are interacting with simply as dolls, they revert to being dolls again). The plot achieves its urgency through a possible problem in the family, but, with a little help, everything can be solved. A little more moralistic and straight-forward than some of his others, but well worth reading–especially if you’ve never tried Eager before.
February 1, 2010
Read this to 8yo at bedtime one chapter at a time and we both loved it! It was great to discover a new favorite together -- I had to restrain myself from reading ahead.
(Interesting to see the Cold War influence in the story, but it flew right over the 8yo's head.)
We are starting on Half Magic now.
(Interesting to see the Cold War influence in the story, but it flew right over the 8yo's head.)
We are starting on Half Magic now.
February 16, 2017
Such fun reading these classic children's fantasy adventures. Brings back lots of fond memories of when I first heard them read to me, and of when I first read them for myself, and of when I read them to my older children years ago. A lovely slice of nostalgia, excellent and thoroughly enjoyable.
July 21, 2020
Just charming. The "noble Ivanhoe," as Maud Hart Lovelace called it, is spoofed delightfully by Eager(along with the ever present Nesbit). For anyone who has fond memories of childhood games, or disliked the fact that the blonde always got the guy(👉👩), this book will definitely be a treat.
Read
September 18, 2024My boys enjoyed this tale of being transported to a place where your toy soldiers come to life. I would have enjoyed it more had it not been so much ‘yeomanly’ talk (and yes that word is used often).
They want to continue on to the next one.
They want to continue on to the next one.
February 6, 2017
Not quite as timeless as Half Magic, but an enjoyable story for the kids and a phone one to read aloud as a parent.
January 11, 2018
Another good story from Edward Eager that really holds up well.
Read
October 19, 2018Never read this before, but it still hit some nostalgia buttons!
January 29, 2025
A fun read aloud with my younger son. We really enjoyed this funny adventure story.
June 11, 2019
Knight's Castle is definitely among my favorites from this series so far! Here, a different group of kids end up dealing with the characters of Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe after they start playing with a new toy castle. Just like Half Magic, Edward Eager's characters and ideas are a ton of fun to read about, and there is a great sense of humor throughout the story too.
The idea of the once-yeomanly knights being ruined by the pretend city was great fun, as was the use of the dollhouse characters. It all feels very true to the way children actually play, so kids will likely relate to the story, while adults will find it a bit nostalgic. The characters also feel very distinct from each other, and all have enjoyable personalities. But of course the tomboyish Eliza was my favorite.
Most of all, I love Eager's wryly humorous versions of the characters from Ivanhoe, though I do recommend reading or watching some version of that story before reading this book, to better understand the references. Having read Ivanhoe before this book, I loved how Eager made the children here so indignant about Ivanhoe choosing Rowena instead of Rebecca(when of course anyone who read the original book knows that Rebecca should have been the obvious choice!). A good portion of this book is spent throwing shade at Rowena, and I love every minute of it!
Knight's Castle feels a lot like rereading Ivanhoe, but without the longwinded sentences and unpleasant antisemitic undertones. So really, I have no complaints!
The idea of the once-yeomanly knights being ruined by the pretend city was great fun, as was the use of the dollhouse characters. It all feels very true to the way children actually play, so kids will likely relate to the story, while adults will find it a bit nostalgic. The characters also feel very distinct from each other, and all have enjoyable personalities. But of course the tomboyish Eliza was my favorite.
Most of all, I love Eager's wryly humorous versions of the characters from Ivanhoe, though I do recommend reading or watching some version of that story before reading this book, to better understand the references. Having read Ivanhoe before this book, I loved how Eager made the children here so indignant about Ivanhoe choosing Rowena instead of Rebecca(when of course anyone who read the original book knows that Rebecca should have been the obvious choice!). A good portion of this book is spent throwing shade at Rowena, and I love every minute of it!
Knight's Castle feels a lot like rereading Ivanhoe, but without the longwinded sentences and unpleasant antisemitic undertones. So really, I have no complaints!
September 27, 2025
I reread the first book in this series not long ago, and despite its flaws I still loved it. However, I had never read any more of the books in the series, and I was curious what I'd think of them. I wondered if I'd enjoy them as much as book one, despite not being nostalgic about them. Well, for this second book at any rate, the answer was a definite no. I had fun reading it, but didn't like it nearly as much as book one. I was also a lot less forgiving of its flaws (in this case, mostly the "not bad, for a girl" thing directed at Ann by her brother Roger).
The plot itself was fun, with the kids' toy castle (and its knightly inhabitants) becoming a full-size real castle. They messed up some things and had to fix them, and I was amused by that. I only partly enjoyed the characters, though: in this one, we follow cousins who are kids of two of the characters in Half Magic. I enjoyed some of their interactions, but at other times they seemed mean to each other, and I didn't care for those parts.
I've heard that book 3 goes back to revisit the characters from book 1, and then book 4 follows the characters from this book again. However, I've yet to determine if I will continue reading the series.
The plot itself was fun, with the kids' toy castle (and its knightly inhabitants) becoming a full-size real castle. They messed up some things and had to fix them, and I was amused by that. I only partly enjoyed the characters, though: in this one, we follow cousins who are kids of two of the characters in Half Magic. I enjoyed some of their interactions, but at other times they seemed mean to each other, and I didn't care for those parts.
I've heard that book 3 goes back to revisit the characters from book 1, and then book 4 follows the characters from this book again. However, I've yet to determine if I will continue reading the series.
August 22, 2022
Another great read for my grandson and me. I personally did not find this book quite as fine as the series opener but it was immensely entertaining nonetheless. As my grandson says, there aren't many writers as good as Edward Eager was.
September 5, 2023
This one was a bit harder to get into than the first one but one of my daughters liked it and could follow along with the story even though it was written a long time ago and we didn't know all the lingo. I prob won't read another.
August 31, 2022
The kids and I love this series. A fun read aloud for school 📚
July 18, 2022
I loved Edward Eager’s fantasy books as a child, especially how they can all be enjoyed as standalone stories but exist in a shared (and very whimsical) universe. The kids in Knight’s Castle are the children of the kids in
Half Magic
, and now they get an adventure of their own: at night, their toy castle comes to life, and the kids shrink down to tin-soldier-size and have "yeomanly" exploits.
However, upon reread, this book didn’t hold up for me as well as I would have liked. The kids are obsessed with Ivanhoe and a lot of Knight’s Castle relies on familiarity with Ivanhoe’s story and characters, which I don’t believe is common knowledge for children anymore (it wasn’t even common knowledge for me as a ‘90s kid). Meanwhile, the comedy scenes of medieval knights playing baseball and zipping around in electric cars feel very A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court … but I’ve never been wild about Connecticut Yankee.
Still, there are some delightfully weird ideas here, especially when the medieval tin soldiers come into conflict with the “giants” across the way (really a family of dolls in Ann’s neglected dollhouse). Eager is a clever writer; whole pages go by with every paragraph ending in some deadpan joke. There’s even some sneaky 1950s-era political satire that went over my head as a child. The kids set up a throne room for their King John figurine in an unused fireplace, and then at night, “behind this iron curtain,” John’s despotic tendencies go in the direction of “rounding up the deer for a collective farming experiment.” I see what you did there, Mr. Eager!
However, upon reread, this book didn’t hold up for me as well as I would have liked. The kids are obsessed with Ivanhoe and a lot of Knight’s Castle relies on familiarity with Ivanhoe’s story and characters, which I don’t believe is common knowledge for children anymore (it wasn’t even common knowledge for me as a ‘90s kid). Meanwhile, the comedy scenes of medieval knights playing baseball and zipping around in electric cars feel very A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court … but I’ve never been wild about Connecticut Yankee.
Still, there are some delightfully weird ideas here, especially when the medieval tin soldiers come into conflict with the “giants” across the way (really a family of dolls in Ann’s neglected dollhouse). Eager is a clever writer; whole pages go by with every paragraph ending in some deadpan joke. There’s even some sneaky 1950s-era political satire that went over my head as a child. The kids set up a throne room for their King John figurine in an unused fireplace, and then at night, “behind this iron curtain,” John’s despotic tendencies go in the direction of “rounding up the deer for a collective farming experiment.” I see what you did there, Mr. Eager!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 278 reviews