In the perfect bedtime reading, a mischievous imp called Puck delights two precocious youngsters with 10 magical fables about the hidden histories ...
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Oct 31, 2011
Mary
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This is a children's story intending to teach some English history in an entertaining fashion, and it does a really good job of that. Certainly his child audience was a lot better educated than our sis today for the most part. The language and imagery is rich, even when he's not writing actual poetry. I found his religious perspective very disturbing, however, as I always do with Kipling. He is a humanist, but he also claims that Protestantism was an evil bringer of destruction and hatred to Eng
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May 28, 2011
Megan
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I hadn't read any Kipling in a loooong time, but I got turned onto Peter Bellamy's text settings of his poems, and I remembered that he also wrote books. Puck of Pook's Hill reminded me a little of Watership Down, successful with the kind of pastoral charm that usually gives me a toothache, but it was also very dated. The conceit is that a brother and sister encounter Puck one Midsummer Day, and he brings them people from history to tell them the stories of their little corner of England. I like
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Aug 07, 2009
This is an odd book! Kipling presents us with two small children, Dan and Una, who meet Puck once their abbreviated outdoor performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream frees the good fellow from centuries of bondage in the hills. In a series of episodes Puck introduces Dan and Una to a variety of figures from different historical periods. Dan and Una are made to forget each encounter, but readers acquire a layered view of Britain's past and the diversity of people who over time have identified t
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Dec 17, 2009
Catherine
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This is charming English history for kids and people who have been taught history is boring.
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Sep 30, 2011
Lucy
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Kipling really does write well. I loved the idea of this book, the framing device of the children meeting Puck, and those sections are excellent - I love the poems that top and tail the sections. But to the main point of the book, the historical figures telling their stories - you need to know the history before you read this because he does plunge in rather. Given that this book was written presumably for children, it makes you realise that education was very different one hundred years ago. I'
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Apr 19, 2011
Melinda
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Written by Rudyard Kipling to amuse his children, this book is a wonderfully entertaining little gem. A brother and sister stumble across Puck, the woodland sprite of English mythology also known as Robin Goodfellow. (Those up on Shakespeare's "A Midsummer's Night Dream" will recognize Puck as the jester to the King of the Fairies, Oberon). Puck teaches them about Old England from the time of William the Conqueror, to the Roman's guarding Hadrian's Wall against the PIcts, and even i
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Jan 20, 2012
Ms.candy
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هذا الكتاب يتكلم عن كائنات غير بشرية تعيش في أرض خلف منزل بيت طفلين مُهتمين بالتاريخ الإنجليزي ..
القصة تبدأ حينما يخرجان للتنزه، ولن تنتهي أبداً كما أظن !
جمال هذا الكتاب في تبسيطه الشديد لعدة قصص قديمة لتكون ممتعة وسهلة الفهم "رغم لغة الكتاب القديمه المُتعبة في الفهم <.<"
جميلة .. More...
القصة تبدأ حينما يخرجان للتنزه، ولن تنتهي أبداً كما أظن !
جمال هذا الكتاب في تبسيطه الشديد لعدة قصص قديمة لتكون ممتعة وسهلة الفهم "رغم لغة الكتاب القديمه المُتعبة في الفهم <.<"
جميلة .. More...
Jul 17, 2009
Bob
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I was intrigued by the references to this book in A. S. Byatt's new novel, The Children's Book, in which it figures importantly. And then, I saw it mentioned in A Walk Along The Wall by Hunter Davies. (Much of Kipling's book is set on Hadrian's wall.) So I tracked down a copy and read it, and it's quite marvelous. Probably would have given it five stars, except for some unfortunate lines about the Jews in the last chapter ( which do nothing more, really, than prove that the author was a child
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Sep 20, 2010
Chrisiant
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Yay Kipling. This is actually the first Kipling besides Just So Stories that I've read through. I have more to say about the format in which I read it (DailyLit) than the actually book, which was quirky and interesting. I'm already familiar with many of Kipling's poems that have been set to music, so it was nice to run across them in context. I'm generally in favor of narratives that are broken up by bits of song and verse (a la Tolkien and others).
I grew quite fond of Sir Richard an More...
I grew quite fond of Sir Richard an More...
Nov 22, 2008
Res
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The one where two children meet Puck, the last fairy remaining in England, and he introduces them to dead Saxons, Normans, Romans, and stories that tell of British history.
Alas for period prejudices. The story starts with the tale of Weland Smith and the sword he made, and then introduces you to charming people from various historical periods, with mostly-lovely poetry between the sections -- and just about the time you're going, "Oh, ooh, all this is going to add up to the Magn More...
Alas for period prejudices. The story starts with the tale of Weland Smith and the sword he made, and then introduces you to charming people from various historical periods, with mostly-lovely poetry between the sections -- and just about the time you're going, "Oh, ooh, all this is going to add up to the Magn More...
Dec 05, 2008
Jenne
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The children were at the Theatre, acting to Three Cows as much as they could remember of Midsummer Night's Dream.”
So begins a time of magic for Dan and Una. It was Midsummer’s Eve and the children have performed the play three times, unwittingly, inside a fairy ring near their home in Sussex. The summoning calls up the mischievous Puck, the last of the People of the Hill left in merry old England. Puck gives them the gift “to see what they shall see and hear what they shall hear, tho More...
So begins a time of magic for Dan and Una. It was Midsummer’s Eve and the children have performed the play three times, unwittingly, inside a fairy ring near their home in Sussex. The summoning calls up the mischievous Puck, the last of the People of the Hill left in merry old England. Puck gives them the gift “to see what they shall see and hear what they shall hear, tho More...
Dec 31, 2011
Kelli
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This is not one of Kipling's best written books, but it is my favorite. In a series of magical adventures, Avalon's Puck gives two children an interesting history lesson about their father's land near Pevensy Castle. I read this book almost twenty years ago and have since dreamed of going to England to visit the ruins of this castle and to see if maybe I could find must a little bit of that magic out there.
May 31, 2009
Jennifer
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Rudyard Kipling's take on English history for kids, this is a set of stories about historical figures, retold as good yarns. :) A lot of deep devotion to the roots of England, but mostly doesn't come off as overly chauvinistic. In fact, Kipling's treatment of a Jewish character late in the book surprised me--very, very sympathetic for the times he was writing in.
Feb 23, 2011
Hazel
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Such a delight. I can't wait 'til my niece is old enough for this. I've revisited a number of childhood reads in recent weeks, and this is the one that has worn best. I imagine that says something about my penchant for whimsy and nostalgia. There's nothing sophisticated about Kipling's take on what made Britain great, but for some reason I can overlook all his failings as he uses fairy tales as illustration for a history lesson. I can even tolerate the AntiSemitism. Go figure.
Jul 31, 2011
Steve
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When Dan and Una act out a version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Midsummer Eve inside a fairy circle at the foot of Pook’s Hill they inevitably summon Puck. Puck then proceeds to tell the two children stories of the Norman Conquest, Roman Britain and the signing of the Magna Charta to learn of their heritage.
May 24, 2010
Janet
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I read this book and thought “Oh, what a charming story of childhood enchantment and fairies.” The editor read this book and thought “This is a grand allegory about Mankind and History and England. The main character is someone the reader hardly even meets at all. What a wonderful literary achievement!” Obviously, I missed something. Either that or the editor needs to cut back on his meds.
Jan 13, 2012
note to self: for humanities course? describes daily life of feudalism; compare learning about history through this type of book versus history book, see p. 158 Bring History Alive
Feb 11, 2009
Linda
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Two early 20th century children, living in Pevensey, England, have a chance encounter with the legendary Puck, who undertakes to bring them a series of first hand accounts of the history of their region. Fun combination of fact and fancy.
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Feb 16, 2009
Margaret
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This is the first book that made history seem like a continuity rather than a collection of interesting but discrete stories.
Jun 04, 2009
Lila
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This was one of my father's favorite childhood books. He read it aloud to us when I was a little too old for it.
Jun 22, 2008
Adam
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"'Now are you two lawfully seized and possess of all Old England,' began Puck, in a sing-song voice. 'By right of Oak, Ash, and Thorn are you free to come and go and look and know where I shall show or best you please. You shall see What you shall see and you shall hear What you shall hear, though It shall have happened three thousand year; and you shall know neither Doubt nor Fear. Fast! Hold fast all I give you.'"
"Puck of Pook's Hill" features a different setting More...
"Puck of Pook's Hill" features a different setting More...
Feb 14, 2011
Olga
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A brilliant read for an imaginative child and/or a burgeoning Anglophile.
Jan 29, 2012
Kathryn
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Kipling's idiosyncratic, but enjoyable, take on the history of England, as told to two Edwardian children by not-quite-Shakespeare's Puck. A significant theme infusing most (although not all) of the stories is the question of how the conquerors--Roman, Saxon, Norman--became the English. Not, perhaps, a historically accurate account, but certainly an aesthetically and emotionally-satisfying one.
Dec 17, 2009
Donald
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Read it in the context of a composition date of 1906 or so, and see what a really wide and glorious view of the full range of good humans Kipling espoused. There's room for anyone with a caring heart in his story of the making of England: Normans, Picts, Bee Boys and more....
Dec 16, 2009
Read a children's book by a man who did not talk down to children "Farewell, rewards and fairies, good housemaids now may say, for now foul sluts in dairies, do fare as well as they..."
