Roland Wright Future Knight

I've been looking for books that would encourage and engage a reluctant reader. Next year his history focus is the Middle Ages. So when I ran across Roland Wright: Future Knight it seemed like a great series to preview to see if it lived up to being interesting historical fiction written at an early chapter book level.

Roland is an engaging character. He lives with his father, older brother Shelby, and his mouse Nudge. His father is a talented local blacksmith who produces armor for knights locally and as we are to learn even more nationally. While Shelby seems to have embraced his future at the beginning of the story, Roland longs for more. He truly wants to be a knight. Shelby scoffs at his younger brother's dreams, but Roland keeps seeking opportunities to pursue his dream believing if he works at it he can achieve it. Roland meets and helps an injured knight and the knight provides some valuable advice to Roland later in the story.

While Shelby has scoffed at his brother's dreams to move beyond the blacksmith, when the opportunity does arise for one of the boys to become a page in the King's home he believes the honor should go to him as the oldest son. The boy's father is a bit wiser and feels that tests should be given to determine which boy is best suited to which job. Those who have seen the future titles have a pretty good idea of the outcome prior to reading about the tests, but the story is a good reminder about doing the right thing even if you think it might cost you what you want. There are two other books in the series Roland Wright: Brand-New Page (Roland Wright) and Roland Wright: At the Joust,

This met my need of a Middle Ages historical fiction book written at the early chapter book level that was an engaging read. My hope is to find to find material written at a level the child can read independently that engages the desire to read and imparts a little knowledge about the time period and I think this book and the series as a whole accomplishes that goal.