Book Review: Sir Lambalot, Jude Lennon
Picture Book (ages 3 – 6): Sir Lambalot, written by Jude Lennon and illustrated by Holly Bushnell
You know you’re going to write a positive review when your granddaughters (ages 5 and 3 1/2) say “I like that story” and “Read it again.”
Sir Lambalot is the busiest knight in Queen Floss’ country. He’s brave and bold, but his hallmark characteristic is his kindness. Sir Lambalot helps his Queen learn the importance of getting to know people that are different instead of immediately thinking of locking them away because they may be potentially scary.
Lennon’s engaging rhyming couplets keeps the story moving forward; and Busnell’s gentle illustrations soften the initial harshness of Queen Floss’ negative attitude.
Sir Lambalot is an enjoyable read aloud with young children. The predictable pattern of three problems to solve provides the structure that allows for discussion of our knight’s quests during a follow-up reread. My older reviewer and I talked about the more abstract concepts of trustworthy giants and loyal trolls. My younger reviewer had fun pointing out details like the dragon was so big his tail didn’t fit all the way on a two page spread and the troll had rainbow colored hair. She also spotted the troll bridge in the dragon flying scene and was excited by the visual foreshadowing.
With Sir Lambalot finally getting to rest after the new friends were all settled, this story was a pleasant way to end a busy day for would be knights as a pre-bedtime book. Young would be queens and knights will find this delightful book a cheerful shared reading experience while on quests for daily kindness.
Our thanks to Rachel Gilbey of Rachel’s Random Resources Blog Tours for inviting us to review this book and providing our digital copy of this book in exchange for our honest review. For other perspectives on this book, check out the other participating bloggers on this tour. The opinions here are solely those of Scintilla.
Picture Book: Sir Lambalot, written by Jude Lennon and illustrated by Holly Bushnell