A Review of The Seven Tales of Trinket by Shelley Moore Thomas

I already liked Shelley Moore Thomas’s books, the Good Knight series, which are picture books and easy readers about the interplay between a very patient, kindly knight and three difficult yet sweet little orphaned dragons. So of course I was excited to read her middle grade fantasy, The Seven Tales of Trinket.

This book is deliberately episodic and self-reflective, which is a little tricky to pull off. Fortunately, Thomas pulls it off. We follow a girl named Trinket and her friend Thomas the Pig Boy as they travel to find out what happened to Trinket’s father, a handsome bard who has been missing for years. Along the way, Trinket also collects stories, turning each one into a song. The stories are Trinket’s and Thomas’s adventures, but they later become tales that Trinket tells in other villages.

To give you an idea about their adventures, I’ll just list the chapter titles, which are numbered tales: “The Gypsy and the Seer,” “The Harp of Bone and Hair,” “The Wee Banshee of Crossmaglin,” “The Faerie Queen and the Gold Coin,” “A Pig Boy, a Ghost, and a Pooka,” “The Old Burned Man and the Hound,” and “The Storyteller and the Truth.” As an author’s note explains, Thomas’s tales are based primarily on Celtic folklore. But the author adds her own twists in the telling, created dimensional characters as she goes.

The language is clean and clear, with occasional touches of poetry to burnish the narrative. For example, Thomas the Pig Boy is always hungry. He explains, “Never was a lad born with as fierce a beast in his belly as myself.” And here's my favorite paragraph:

There were bones on the shore. Bones of large sea beast called whales. Whiter than the clouds, they rose from the rocks like the ghosts of old tree branches. I could hear Thomas gasp at the sight of them.

The tales are touched with humor, magic and intrigue. “As if she read my mind, the dark-eyed girl spoke. ‘You wonder about me, as well you should.’ I paused, my bread midway to my bowl of broth. ‘I am a liar,’ she said.”

Fragments of some of the stories show up in later stories as certain characters reappear for different reasons. The overall arc is Trinket’s search for her father, but as she moves onward, she becomes something in her own right, a singer and storyteller. In fact, a young bard. She also handles herself pretty well and learns along the way, though the book is far from didactic. Thomas the Pig Boy makes a sturdy, if hungry, companion. He and Trinket take turns saving each other when things go wrong. (These are pre-teens, however, and there isn’t the slightest hint of romance between them, just loyalty and friendship.)

The author did something a little different with the ending, and I’m not sure quite how well it flows. However, readers will regain their footing by the last page and will be very glad they’ve read Trinket’s seven tales. Shelley Moore Thomas’s Good Knight books are charming, and so is The Seven Tales of Trinket—a well-paced, magical middle grade read.

Note: You can watch the book trailer for The Seven Tales of Trinket here.

Shelley Moore Thomas's Good Knight

There are a lot of forgettable easy readers out there, unfortunately. Notable exceptions include Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad books, which are brilliantly written, though they may feel a little quiet for some of today's kids; Dr. Seuss's easy readers, such as the iconic Green Eggs and Ham; James Marshall's Fox books; and Mo Willems's Elephant and Piggie books, those shiny new masterpieces. Joanna Cole's Bony Legs is a marvelous easy reader retelling the Baba Yaga story. I've had older students and boys like that one, probably because it's a little scary. And speaking of scary, Alvin Schwartz's In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories is another good easy reader, especially for boys. Two more classic easy readers are P.D. Eastman's Are You My Mother? and Nancy Gurney's The King, the Mice and the Cheese, while Dr. Seuss's Hop on Pop and Eastman's Go Dog. Go! are the easiest of the classics I recommend. (The latter is surprisingly long. It should be read in sections and thoroughly savored.)

Another series I adore for this group of readers is Jonathan London's Froggy books. They're not billed as easy readers, but with a little support, they make a nice transitional tool. The first book, Froggy Gets Dressed, is still my favorite, with its wonderful onomatopoeia and its call-and-response between Froggy and his mother.

Anyway, I recently came across Shelley Moore Thomas's Good Knight books and have happily added them to my repertoire of worthwhile easy readers, particularly for boys. The first book was no doubt inspired by a play on words: Good Night, Good Knight. We start off with an introduction to three dragons, but they're not quite the dragons you might expect:

Once there were three little dragons. They lived in a dark cave. The cave was in a dense forest. The forest was in a faraway kingdom. The poor little dragons were very lonely in their deep dark cave.

And where you have dragons, of course you have a knight. But he's not what you'd expect, either. Then again, the dragons throw him off his game:

He came to the deep dark cave. Inside he saw the first little dragon. "What's this?" he asked. "Methinks it is a dragon!" And he drew his shimmery, glimmery sword. The dragon had on his jammies. He was all ready for bed. "Oh good. You have come," said the dragon. "Could you bring me a drink of water? Please. Then I can go to sleep."

Yep, the Good Knight soon finds himself acting as a sort of guardian to three little dragons. Basically, all of his adventures consist of dealing with the trouble the dragons get into. After he puts them to bed with various complications in the first book, we find him taking care of sick dragons in Book Two. ("Methinks I heard a sneeze," said the Good Knight.) He ends up getting help from a wizard, and then from his mother.

Our hero celebrates his birthday with his three charges in the third book, Happy Birthday, Good Knight. He doesn't guess why the dragons want his help coming up with a present for someone special, and their attempts to make a gift result in more than one mess. Three little dragons can use an amazing amount of glue when making a birthday card!

Books Four and Five switch to a picture book format, so I guess I'm cheating here, but maybe your reader will be able to practice in a slightly tougher format with your help. Take Care, Good Knight is the story about what happens when three little dragons attempt to pet sit for an old, old wizard. But when an old, old wizard leaves you a note telling you how to care for his seven cats and you can't actually read, you're bound to misinterpret his drawings and make some mistakes. Fortunately, the Good Knight is willing to act in an advisory capacity after the cats are put in a cupboard, among other mishaps.

The author's most recent book is A Cold Winter's Good Knight, in which it's too cold for the dragons to stay in their cave, so the Good Knight brings them to the castle. However, there's a ball in progress and the dragons have no idea how to behave. They raise a ruckus as the knight repeatedly tries to instruct them in castle etiquette.

Jennifer Plecas's line drawings, with their bug-eyed baby dragons and their slightly harassed-looking knight, suit this series like a good coat of armor. While her work has a cartoonish feel, the loose lines bring it back into the realm of illustration. It's a nice balancing act.

If you have a kindergartner or first grader at home who's done with Green Eggs and Ham and wondering what to read next, give this series a try. The combination of the author's sense of humor with the fresh premise of a knight fostering baby dragons makes it a charming alternative for the easy reader crowd.

Update: The author dropped by this post and let us know she has a new Good Knight book coming out next year, so look for it!