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Knights of the Round Table
imagine a mythic kingdom in England of wizards and witches, fire-breathing dragons, and dreadful giants. Who can rule this magical land? Who can overcome the powers of evil? It is the destiny of King Arthur and his noble knights, who protect and serve the people of Camelot. A perfect introduction to the Arthurian legends.
112 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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209 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
May 11, 2015
The primary reason this introductory primer to the legends of King Arthur gets a 5-star rating from moi is because it is what turned me onto Arthurian lore (something that obviously stuck with me--hello, The Camelot Shadow: A Novel--and will continue to pervade other future works). Ideal for an elementary school reader yearning for adventure but not quite ready to tackle something more complex.
June 21, 2018
I liked this book. I think it is very well written and Ms.Gross did a good job making it readable for children.
July 2, 2020
Aimed at a young audience, I can see how it can wet the taste buds of kids craving adventure. My 8-year-old nephew had urged me to read it, and I will forever love that. It added to my knowledge of King Arthur, and challenged some of it. I would hope this intro to King Arthur gets kids to dig further and have adventures of their own.
July 9, 2018
Oliver, Andrew and I all enjoyed reading this. The plot was interesting and the vocabulary was simple enough for him to understand without being boring for me to read. Many stories of courage and honor! We will definitely read it again.
January 31, 2019
We read this book aloud as part of our Middle Ages curriculum (as, I’m sure, many others here have as well). I think Gwen Gross did a great job choosing the legends to retell, keeping them PG, and writing them in a way that was accessible to early readers. The pictures were also wonderful and well-placed. I, however, will stay away from all Stepping Stone books based on how poorly written most of this book is. I can’t even begin to count the number of incomplete sentences. It is just plain incorrect. Sure, a first grader isn’t studying hard grammar rules. But when every other sentence begins with “And...”, they’re not likely to pick up anything useful for reading or writing. Reading this out loud was especially painful. It was all I could do to edit as I read and try not to sound like a robot. Just because a book is for early readers does not mean it should be lifeless, dull, and grammatically incorrect. This might have come off harsher than intended. It was just a rough couple of days getting through it.
May 26, 2023
I was looking for a book to read my son when he gets a little older and so I decided to read this. I have some memory of reading or being read this when I was young. It is a good book. A great retelling of an ancient story. The chapters really could be considered independent stories but they are all good.
April 6, 2018
A Great Knight Story
This book is full of adventure,magic, and awesome action. I would have enjoyed witnessing many of these wonderful stories first hand! What a good read for children of all ages!
This book is full of adventure,magic, and awesome action. I would have enjoyed witnessing many of these wonderful stories first hand! What a good read for children of all ages!
May 2, 2018
This book was a good introduction to the Arthur legends for children. The illustrations were decent. However, the run-on sentences ruined this book for me. This book is a terrible example of writing for children. I edited the run-ons as I read to my kids.
October 19, 2018
Read this to give it to one of my students learning English. I think he will enjoy it. It tells the King Arthur stories and the knights of the round table. No Guinevere or romance in this one. Still I think he will enjoy this story.
April 5, 2025
Read this with my 8 year old. I read the odd pages, she read the even. Each chapter takes about 8-10 minutes. Engaging introduction to King Arthur stories, something I didn’t hear growing up. We read several books including a graphic novel version, but this was my favorite.
November 7, 2025
This was a fantastic introduction to the tales of the round table and other such stories. I never quite knew what each of the stories were really about but this gave me a really good overview. I’d recommend to anyone else who wants to be introduced
December 15, 2017
5 stars simply because this was a fantastic introduction to these stories for both my 4-year-old son and myself.
September 18, 2018
excellent read. passing to the grands.
February 10, 2019
Read to 6 year old. He loved it.
August 30, 2019
I have a soft spot for this book as it was my introduction to Arthurian lore. The illustrations still seem wonderful.
January 25, 2021
This was a very intriguing, fabulous written adaption! I read this to my kids when they were younger; they loved it as they were enthralled waiting to hear what happened next :)
May 17, 2021
A nice, kid-friendly version of some of the central stories of the Arthurian mythos. I read it to my kids (6 & 8 at this time), and they could read these stories on their own.
November 23, 2021
I liked it because there was some funny stuff in it and I liked the ending when all the battles happened.
September 5, 2022
4 7/8 stars according to my daughter. Classic story.
May 28, 2025
A wonderful introduction to the tales of King Arthur and his knights!
May 29, 2025
An excellent introduction for children to King Arthur.
December 8, 2025
My girls loved this introduction to Arthurian lore. My only complaint was that we wanted more Guinevere!
November 25, 2012
This introduction to the Arthurian legends for children before they can manage Howard Pyle or Sir Thomas Malory's editions contains short chapters which tell about the sword in the stone, Lancelot and the fiery-mouthed dragon, the beautiful witch Morgan Le Fay with her scheme to usurp the throne, Sir Gawain’s marriage to the ugly Ragnall to save Arthur, the kitchen knight known as “Big Hands” who rescues the Lady Linness, and Mordred's treachery leading to the last battle. Readers are asked to imagine a mythic kingdom in England of wizards and witches, fire-breathing dragons, and dreadful giants. Who can rule this magical land? Who can overcome the powers of evil? It is the destiny of King Arthur and his noble knights, who protect and serve the people of Camelot.
In the Preface, the author writes, “Was there a real King Arthur? People who study the past think there was. They know only a little about him. He ruled in England about fifteen hundred years ago. He won many battles. And he was a king no one could forget.” Of course, what little we know about the real Arthur is quite different from all the legends that grew up around him, but the legends have become part of our English literature and still deserve to be studied. Many of those legends contain a great deal of immorality, such as Guinevere's adultery, which is not appropriate for young children and is thankfully omitted in this book. The simple vocabulary with large print and the gray pencil and charcoal drawings will appeal to early readers.
One of the biggest complaints about this book was the bad grammar with a lot of sentence fragments which make the narrative choppy. "For seven days King Arthur and Sir Gawain rode through the land. They asked the riddle of every woman they met. Young maidens with flowers in their hair. Mothers carrying their babies. Poor women tending sheep by the road. Rich ladies covered with jewels. Some said that women wanted beauty. Some said love. Or wisdom. Or children. Or riches. Or Adventure. Or truth." I noticed this in reading it aloud. While one wouldn’t hold the book up as a model of sentence structure, it could be argued that the stories are written in the same style with which we often speak to express emotion and inflection of voice. The book is apparently available in two editions. Someone suggested that the Bullseye Classics version is without what some see as the horrendous grammatical errors, whereas the Stepping Stone edition is thought by them to be quite poorly written.
In the Preface, the author writes, “Was there a real King Arthur? People who study the past think there was. They know only a little about him. He ruled in England about fifteen hundred years ago. He won many battles. And he was a king no one could forget.” Of course, what little we know about the real Arthur is quite different from all the legends that grew up around him, but the legends have become part of our English literature and still deserve to be studied. Many of those legends contain a great deal of immorality, such as Guinevere's adultery, which is not appropriate for young children and is thankfully omitted in this book. The simple vocabulary with large print and the gray pencil and charcoal drawings will appeal to early readers.
One of the biggest complaints about this book was the bad grammar with a lot of sentence fragments which make the narrative choppy. "For seven days King Arthur and Sir Gawain rode through the land. They asked the riddle of every woman they met. Young maidens with flowers in their hair. Mothers carrying their babies. Poor women tending sheep by the road. Rich ladies covered with jewels. Some said that women wanted beauty. Some said love. Or wisdom. Or children. Or riches. Or Adventure. Or truth." I noticed this in reading it aloud. While one wouldn’t hold the book up as a model of sentence structure, it could be argued that the stories are written in the same style with which we often speak to express emotion and inflection of voice. The book is apparently available in two editions. Someone suggested that the Bullseye Classics version is without what some see as the horrendous grammatical errors, whereas the Stepping Stone edition is thought by them to be quite poorly written.
December 13, 2016
This was a really fun read-aloud for me and my seven-year-old. We started it this summer (with some younger cousins listening, too), and then it got packed away during our move. We just found it again and finished the second half.
It's comprised of 6 cool stories about arthur and different knights and their adventures.
Something that might be a red flag for some parents, but that I actually kind of liked, was that the action isn't too watered down: i.e. Arthur chops off evil Sir Malgar's head, Morgan la Fey's attendant bursts into flames from a cursed garment, lots of secret plots to kill each other, etc.
Super fun, and totally classic. :)
It's comprised of 6 cool stories about arthur and different knights and their adventures.
Something that might be a red flag for some parents, but that I actually kind of liked, was that the action isn't too watered down: i.e. Arthur chops off evil Sir Malgar's head, Morgan la Fey's attendant bursts into flames from a cursed garment, lots of secret plots to kill each other, etc.
Super fun, and totally classic. :)
May 18, 2013
With Story of the World, Vol. II
I thought this book was just right to introduce the suject of Arthurian legends to my daughter, age 9. Just the right amount of detail, adventure, and gore. It is ot a continuous narrative but 6 different stories - however it works together as a book. I am not very familiar with the subject myself so cannot speak to the accuracy, etc. but it did what it set out to do in my view!
I thought this book was just right to introduce the suject of Arthurian legends to my daughter, age 9. Just the right amount of detail, adventure, and gore. It is ot a continuous narrative but 6 different stories - however it works together as a book. I am not very familiar with the subject myself so cannot speak to the accuracy, etc. but it did what it set out to do in my view!
September 12, 2013
In the classic tale of Arthur and his nights of the round table there is much adventure. There are fire breathing dragons that terrorize a simple town and their people. There are evil witches that pull very evil tricks. There are battles with men on horses holding javelins. Arthur from a very young age was destined for greatness. This epic story has all this magic and adventure rapped up in one short book.
February 9, 2015
We read this as part of our Middle Ages history lesson. This is a quick read and good early elementary introduction to the legend of King Arthur. It touches on a handful of the legend's stories: the sword in the stone, Lancelot, Morgan Le Fay, Sir Gawain and the Lady Ragnell, Sir Gareth/The Kitchen Knight and The Last Battle.
August 15, 2012
The knights of the round table is such a good book for young kids. I have had this book forever. I have read it many times and I enjoy it every time that I read it regardless of how old I get. I always liked the story of King Arthur and the author did a good job with this version.
August 19, 2016
Read these short tales of the Knights of the round table to my 8 year old son and he loved them. A great beginning introduction to the legends of Merlin, King Arthur, Morgan Le Fey and all of the knights.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews