Robin Hood

by Neil Philip, Neil Harris (Illustrator), Joan Gruffudd (Narrated by)

Recounts the life and adventures of Robin Hood, who, with his band of followers, lived in Sherwood Forest as an outlaw dedicated to fighting tyranny, and includes illustrated notes throughout the text which explain the historical background of the story.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, British Literature, Literature, Middle Grade, Medieval, Historical

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Neil Philip is a writer, folklorist and poet. He is married to the artist Emma Bradford, and lives in the Cotswolds, England. Neil loves words, poetry, and the art of storytelling in all its forms. Among his many books are A Fine Anger, Victorian Village Life, The Cinderella Story, The Penguin Book of English Folktales, Mythology (with Philip Wilkinson), The Great Mystery, War and the Pity of War, The New Oxford Book of Childrens Verse, The Tale of Sir Gawain, Horse Hooves & Chicken Feet, and The Adventures of Odysseus. Neil has contributed to numerous journals, including The Times, and Signal: Approaches to Childrens Books, and has also written for stage, screen, and radio. His work has won numerous awards and honours, including the Aesop Award of the American Folklore Society and the Literary Criticism Book Award of the Childrens Literature Association. Outside of the storied world, Neil is passionate about cats, art, music, France, food & wine, and friendship.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew almost nothing about the legend going in, but wanted to. I thought I'd just scan this, get the gist of it, read bits... but I wound up reading every word of the narrative, every caption, and examining every image.

Philip and Harris did a marvelous job bringing the adventurers and the history to life. The drawings are lively and appealing, and the images collected from actual old manuscripts and art are well-chosen to give information and a real sense of context. I particularly liked the photos of the forest, the deer, broom and woad, recreators' costumes....

Big problem, though. It was made clear that Robin Hood himself may never have existed. And that Richard and John did. But what about Guy of Gisborne, and the Sheriff, and the other documentable characters? The book design could have made the distinctions more clear, and didn't.

I wouldn't mind exploring more by the creators, even though I'm not a big fan of either adventure, history, or Eyewitness books.

[Noninuna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tho I'd never read a single book about Robin Hood, I'd seen a documentary about him. In the documentary, they discussed about who is the real Robin Hood of Sherwood and there's a lot of theories about it. That alone made me curious about the story so I tried to read the ballad that was retold by Howard Pyle but I cannot truly understand it (que for argument about English not my mother-tongue). However, through this book, I've learned a lot.

I cannot say that this book contains a mere fiction because there's a lot of information about medieval life from who's who, the churches, their houses, how they lived, activities like archery to the crusade that joined by King Richard.

I would recommend this to everyone who's a fan of Robin Hood and children who want to read about Robin Hood because beside reading the fiction (retelling of the ballad), there's a lot of things about history that they can learn.

[R. G. Nairam · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an unexpected delight this was!

It's hard to impress me with Robin Hood books, especially ones aimed at younger audiences, not necessarily because they're bad but because I've simply read so many of them it is hard to surprise me.

This is very abbreviated, obviously, but I really enjoyed the voice and the few unique things Neil Philip did with the narrative. I also quite liked the information in the side-panels and the few double-page spreads. Lots of it was old news considering my degree in history and my personal focus on the Middle Ages, but very little of it was inaccurate, though it was obviously quite generalized. There were even a few things I hadn't heard of before.

All in all, really enjoyable.

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eyewitness Classics are always a treat - the pictures and captions and margin material always juxtapose so seamlessly and helpfully with the abbreviated text. This was my first foray into the mythos of Robin Hood, and I quite liked it! Especially the ending bit with the arrow determining the grave. Wish there was more conclusion, though, so we see the evil sheriff of Nottingham get his comeuppance.

[Payto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always a lot more boring when the authors dont find any way to incorporate some middle-english type of speech or weird old ways of writing/talking.
The main paintings were not my taste. So many weird postures. The extra info was all very interesting and well intermingled.

My coworker tried to read this with some 6-yr-olds and I think they liked it, but the next time I looked over they were all climbing on each other instead of reading so Im not sure what their review is

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

The annotations and contemporary artwork were fantastic.

[Christina Pilkington · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 stars

I enjoyed how in between the story of Robin Hood, the author sprinkled bits of historical and cultural information to bring the story to life.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the major stories of Robin Hood are told in the book and on CD. The illustrations are very well done, and the book abounds in ancillary information about the historical period and the setting.

[Róbert Balík · Rating 5 out of 5]

Najmilovanejšia kniha môjho detstva, Robin Hood je dodnes môj najobľúbenejší hrdina, kniha navyše prináša aj náučné state o živote v Anglicku tých čias

[Judah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up at work. I have a special weakness for Dorling-Kindersley books. They're presentation of illustrated notations make every book a sort of interesting exploration of the topic at hand. This volume retells the story of Robin Hood , not from the more familiar likes of Pyle, but medieval accounts. The writer Neil Phillips is a gifted writer, making my eyes water a bit as Robin's story comes to an end. Much to my surprise, the book is does not shy away from Christianity , making ample use of it (though many corrupt churchmen do have part, the church is not seen as evil). Nor do the overviews place blame with Christendom for the Crusades (they explain Muslims take over Jerusalem from its Christian host) AND it rightly calls Israel it's proper name.

My only warnings are A) Everyone's Catholic, and while I have differences with Catholicism, others might want to explain Robin's devotion to "Our Lady" to children. B) the last two chapters, telling us how Robin meets his end, is quite violent and the illustrations are a bit graphic for a children's book.

Illustrated notes are present on the sidebar of each page, and almost every chapter has a following spread covering a historical topic relevant to what you have just read.

This one is definitely another I'd like to own, and I'm quite sorry we don't have the King Arthur volume.

[Theresa Bartholomew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robin Hood: Myth or Man?

This book, along with telling what Robin Hood is famous for, also gives an informative background about the setting, the characters and how they interact, and any history which is different from present times. It uses illustrations to describe new vocabulary such as a pommel of a sword. It is divided into chapters, but the chapters are only a few pages long and each page includes illustrations and side bars full of addition pictures and information.

While drawing us into the story, the book also informs, which allows for a deeper connection with the characters.

[Friend of Pixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Logan already knew the story of Robin Hood right down to Robin Hood's death, from listening several times to an excellent audio version of it (Robin Hood). He's seen the whitewashed Disney version too. But I got this because the pictures and little bits of historical background help to give the audio book more depth. He enjoyed the details of such things as the dress and weapons. He was a bit disappointed to hear that the stories aren't true. But on the whole, he enjoyed looking through this.

[Meegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated by Robin Hood, so this book really appealed to me. Boys and girls of all ages would love this book because it shows the history behind the culture and the people of the time Robin Hood was fabled to be alive. If I was a teacher, I would also recommend this book for a history project even though it hasn’t been proven that Robin Hood was a real person.

[Ruthie Planamenta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not my favorite version of this story. Robin is such a bully!! Ugh. But, I am in love with the formatting of these Eyewitness Classics! The additional nonfiction detailing is everything to me.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

J.J. loved it

[Zara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it's really good to steal from the Sherrif to give money to the poor.