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The Castle Corona
Long ago and far away . . .
There was a castle. But not just any castle. This was a castle that glittered and sparkled and rose majestically above the banks of the winding Winono River: the Castle Corona.
And in this castle lived a family. But not just any family. This was the family of King Guido: rich and royal and . . . spoiled. And King Guido was "so" spoi
...morePaperback, 336 pages
Published
April 1st 2009
by HarperCollins
(first published January 1st 2007)
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When I saw this I thought, holy crap! Sharon Creech wrote a fairy tale! Yay!
Alas, it started well, but fizzled. :( It's like she wrote it on the toilet but then finished shitting just when it was getting good.
Alas, it started well, but fizzled. :( It's like she wrote it on the toilet but then finished shitting just when it was getting good.
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I enjoyed this a lot, but even so, I found it undercooked at several points. I don't think Creech was attempting a radical overhaul of the fairy tale genre, or a "fractured" fairy tale approach--the giveaway there for me was the introduction of Princess Fabrizia:
"It would be wonderful to say that Princess Fabrizia was the strongest, wisest, bravest and kindest of all the King's children, but alas she was frail and foolish and, above all else, afraid of every little thi...more
"It would be wonderful to say that Princess Fabrizia was the strongest, wisest, bravest and kindest of all the King's children, but alas she was frail and foolish and, above all else, afraid of every little thi...more
I have loved almost everything Creech has ever written. No one can capture the inner lives of her characters like Sharon Creech. She writes with such tenderness for all her characters the reader can't help but feel the same. Set in medieval times, Castle Corona tells parallel stories of the people that live within and outside the castle walls. My favorite character was the Wordsmith, who occasionally entertains the court with the power of his stories. Fans of Creech will not be disappointed ...more
I think that children will not find this book very exciting, but did like it and will recommend it. There are spoiled rich royality, wise hermits who are not really wise, just knowing and honest (wait, maybe that is what wisdom is?), and then the surprising reaction the peasants have to the unexpected delivery of abundant free good and goods. Reading this book reminds me about the World Book Night. This is a book give away. Givers are suppose to give books to non-readers, or infrequent reade...more
The Castle Corona by Sharon Creech
Summary:
Long ago and far away . . .
There was a castle. But not just any castle. This was a castle that glittered and sparkled and rose majestically above the banks of the winding Winono River: the Castle Corona.
And in this castle lived a family. But not just any family. This was the family of King Guido: rich and royal and . . . spoiled. And King Guido was so spoiled that neither jewels nor gold nor splendid finery could p...more
Summary:
Long ago and far away . . .
There was a castle. But not just any castle. This was a castle that glittered and sparkled and rose majestically above the banks of the winding Winono River: the Castle Corona.
And in this castle lived a family. But not just any family. This was the family of King Guido: rich and royal and . . . spoiled. And King Guido was so spoiled that neither jewels nor gold nor splendid finery could p...more
Sharon Creech has, with no doubt, created a story that will last from generation to generation. THE CASTLE CORONA takes its readers into an unknown land. There you meet a restless King, a sincere Queen, a poetic Prince, a fussy Princess, and an adventurous Spare Prince. But they are not the only ones. Two excitable and lowly peasants, their lazy Master, a mysterious old woman, and many Kings' Men. There is also a hermit who is wise, a Count and Countess, a dear cook, a fat man, two mysterious ca...more
One of the things I've enjoyed about Sharon Creech's novels is the way that she takes several seemingly disconnected threads of her story and weaves them together into a complete tale that makes perfect sense, once seen from the right perspective. They also have a habit of coming full-circle, so that it's almost like looking at a Möbius strip, and in The Castle Corona, the author doesn't disappoint in this respect.
The thing of it is, when one is more attuned to the fact that this i...more
The thing of it is, when one is more attuned to the fact that this i...more
Ugh. I haven't felt like I wasted time on a book in a long while so I guess I'm due. This is certainly it! Lots of alluded-to mysterious objects that are never exposed. Laughably-caricatured characters. I thought for sure the author was leading up to some big exposition where they would all actually learn something; it never happened. A prince who pines because he can't marry a servant girl? Hello? Your own mother was a hard-working, bean-farming peasant when she married your father, you dolt! T...more
This book was okay.
The reason it got a 2/5 was because there was no real plot, no problem. At the beginning, you would think it was about a theif stealing something, but then as you read along, you realize that it's not. This book was probably just about misunderstandings.
The over all writing style and word choice was okay, not the best but enough to keep me reading the book dispite it having no plot.
The characters were okay too, not too cliche but still is cliche, for ex...more
The reason it got a 2/5 was because there was no real plot, no problem. At the beginning, you would think it was about a theif stealing something, but then as you read along, you realize that it's not. This book was probably just about misunderstandings.
The over all writing style and word choice was okay, not the best but enough to keep me reading the book dispite it having no plot.
The characters were okay too, not too cliche but still is cliche, for ex...more
I picked up this book because my friend and I really liked Sharon Creech, although after I finished this book, I felt like this book is a bit of a let down from Sharon. This book is worse than her oter books, although I still think it is very good. I liked the story a lot. It's just that Sharon put a lot of things in the story, but didn't explain them all. It gives me a headache when I think and wonder about too many things.
This book had many great parts in it. I loved it. I really really ...more
This book had many great parts in it. I loved it. I really really ...more
I love Sharon Creech's style and pacing. She has another winner of a story in The Castle Corona which is unlike any of the other books of hers that I have read. This one takes place in a medieval time with kings and queens, hermits and peasants and follows the lives of two such peasants whose lives are transformed when they come across a royal pouch filled with mysterious things. Mystery throughout, the novel switches back and forth between Pia and Enzio, the peasants, and their royal counter...more
I like Sharon Creech, even though all her books are a little quirky. What I think is cool is that each book is quirky in its own way--and she has written a lot of books. How does she come up with so many completely unique ideas? (The only ones that sort of have related quirkiness are Love That Dog and Hate That Cat, but they are obviously companion books.) So this book was strange in a way, but that is just Sharon Creech. It was satirizing fairy tales which had me chuckling throughout, but ...more
Sharon Creech wrote a pleasant children's story about two peasant children who come across a mysterious object that seems to have come from the castle. The story includes royal characters who are bored with their lot and looking for excitement. It is when these two stories merge that we learn the meaning of this mysterious found object and the royal characters learn that their is more meaning to life than rich boring days spent living lavishly in a castle. As an adult, the story certainly lac...more
I love Sharon Creech, especially for the fact that her books are so different from one another, and so I was very excited when I noticed this at the library. A charming and quirky story about two orphans - a sister and brother - who find a pouch that has been stolen from the king. Soon they find themselves entwined with the royal family and they solve some mysteries of who they are.
I really liked it. The writing was fun and witty, and yet simple enough for what a children's book...more
I really liked it. The writing was fun and witty, and yet simple enough for what a children's book...more
In the Castle Corona lives the discontented royal family. In the village live the discontented orphans Pia and Enzio. Eventually their paths cross.
I completely didn’t get the point of this book. Virtually nothing happened. The characters changed somewhat, but not a lot, and I guess it was just too subtle for me. It reminded me of 'Criss Cross,' which won the Newbery, and I completely didn’t get that, either. I tend to like books in which nothing happens, but the nothing books I love ...more
I completely didn’t get the point of this book. Virtually nothing happened. The characters changed somewhat, but not a lot, and I guess it was just too subtle for me. It reminded me of 'Criss Cross,' which won the Newbery, and I completely didn’t get that, either. I tend to like books in which nothing happens, but the nothing books I love ...more
Fairy tale. Little difficult for younger readers. Pleasing story. Interesting. Liked how peasants thought royal life was better and vice versa. Liked illustrations. Names were difficult. Very pleasurable. Little repetitive. Enjoyed the humor. For a younger reader, good read-aloud. Bit simplistic. Funny actions of characters. Felt dragged a bit. Wanted to know more about the background. Entertaining. Not enough action. Wanted more illustrations as illuminated manuscript.
Junior Owlets...more
Junior Owlets...more
Summary: The Castle Corona is a lively tale about a royal family (king, queen, princess, and two princes) and two orphan peasants. The king loves sleeping and hates his itchy robes. The queen hates always being less than the king. One prince is a poet, the other, a warrior. The princess is spoiled and rude, but doesn't seem to enjoy being this way. The two orphan siblings work hard for a mean master, just as many fairytale characters do. The book starts out with the peace in the kingdom being di...more
Truly, Sharon Creech isn't one of my favorite authors. I've read Walk Two Moons and Bloomability, and I was disappointed by both of them. I picked this up on a whim because it had a king and a queen, a princess, and a castle -- all components that my daughter loves in a story.
I decided to buy this book on audio because we needed a new book for the car, and I'm glad I did. It's told very much like a storyteller tells a fairytale, and I honestly don't know that we would have liked it a...more
I decided to buy this book on audio because we needed a new book for the car, and I'm glad I did. It's told very much like a storyteller tells a fairytale, and I honestly don't know that we would have liked it a...more
I'm pretty sure Sharon Creech has already written this book once before. Maybe twice. Plucky brother and sister orphans who are mistreated but wind up in the care of interesting grandparent-ly people. Wasn't that Ruby Holler? Merge the brother and sister into one girl character, throw in storytelling and a search for identity. Wasn't that Walk Two Moons?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. Obviously these story bones have great resonance for Sharon Creech, and I think any child w...more
Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. Obviously these story bones have great resonance for Sharon Creech, and I think any child w...more
Bonnie Gayle
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
young fans of "Long Ago and Far Away" stories, and also The Prince and the Pauper
This book confused me in a way. This is because I could not figure out the recommended age of the reader: it was a very simple and childlike story, despite a little work with symbolism, but the vocabulary and length were not what a younger child could handle. Overall, it was a little younger of a story than I prefer to read, yet one that would be perfect for a read aloud to a group of children, or for a bedtime story.
The story takes place "long ago and far away" and is abou...more
The story takes place "long ago and far away" and is abou...more
I am baffled as to what this book and its author attempted to achieve. It is not the most exciting adventure story; it does not quite have any profound messages that are not preached by the characters or conveyed subtly by the tale and the events; it deviates from the strength of a traditional fairy tale and has a lot of tedious details about each of the character; it does not incorporate fractured fairy tale traditions in rich and enchanting world-building (such as McKinley's Beauty or Levine'...more
Creech bases a majority of her characters, plotline, and even dialogue on age-old stereotypes of archetypical characters that are commonly seen in fairy tales. That is to say, there is not much to them. I have a feeling this result was on purpose - a sarcastic poke at the fantasy genre. The two orphan characters are the only characters that seem somewhat real, rather than simply literary stereotypes. However by the end of the novel, readers do come to see the noble family as more than mere s...more
I thouroughly enjoyed this book, and is my favorite Sharon Creech novel I have read so far. I love how Creech puts in snobbish,fawning,and somewhat foolish royalty. It puts me in mind of the fawning Mr.Collins from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The characters were likable, and the multiple plot lines kept readers hooked. The beautiful illuminations by David Diaz were quite beautiful, and added a medieval air to the story.
Carmine Rau
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
middle graders
Recommended to Carmine by:
random grab from audiobook shelves
A satisfying fairytale with a lovely castle that sighs, a king who likes napping, a queen who has forgotten her past, a spoiled pretty princess who longs to "do something," a couple princes (a poet and a warrior), a wordsmith who weaves stories from out of his sack, two hermits (not co-habitating obviously) and, of course, two noble orphans whose path is destined to cross with that of the royals and it all begins with a theif and mysterious stolen pouch. I listened to the audiobook- gr...more
I find myself really missing Sharon Creech's earlier novels. Walk Two Moons, Bloomabillity, The Wanderer, Chasing Redbird etc. are all amazing novels that reach out and touch a part of you. I haven't really felt that with the last few book I've read. I much prefer her more realistic fiction. The Castle Corona was a sweet story that should have been about learning to accept what you had in life, make the most of it, and grow from there but somehow, none of that happened. It was a funny little boo...more
As much as I've liked other stories by Sharon Creech, this one didn't really do it for me. It's about a small kingdom where the king is bothered by his affairs of state and all he wants to do is nap. His queen simply dotes on her spoiled rotten children and the princes and princess are very difficult. There are two peasant children who are servants to a mean and belligerent master. They seem to be the only characters who are likable in the least except they start the story by stealing a pouc...more
This book will provide a fun read for girls (or boys) who enjoy the fairy tale, castle genre - your fans of Fairest, Ella Enchanted, etc. The story is about two peasant orphans, a royal family, and how they intersect. The book might look intimidatingly thick, but there is a lot of white space on the pages. The chapters are appealingly short, and the writing from Sharon Creech is top calibre. An entertaining read for children from about 10-13.
The book was okay and I ejoyed reading it.It makes you think, if you lived in a place with kings and queens how would you feel?It also makes you think about if you were the king and queen,would you feel like you did the same thing every day, and it was becoming boring?What if you were the princess, would you be stuck up or humble?It was not, however, a book that I could not put down.
I didn't like this one as much as I'd hoped to. It was VERY drawn out and I kept waiting for things to happen. I'm not sure it would hold the attention of many elementary school kids. It might appeal to kids who REALLY love fairy tales and these kids do exist. It is far from a typical Sharon Creech realistic fiction book however, so her usual fans will be surprised.
I love Sharon Creech, I fell in love with her style when I read this book. I just love castles, fairytale type stories and intend to read any book of hers that I can get my hands on. I love her website! It was inspiring to read about what motivated her and inspired her to and the thought process that went into writing books, and it made my dream seem atainable :)
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I was born in South Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, and grew up there with my noisy and rowdy family: my parents (Ann and Arvel), my sister (Sandy), and my three brothers (Dennis, Doug and Tom).
For a fictional view of what it was like growing up in my family, see Absolutely Normal Chaos. (In that book, the brothers even have the same names as my own brothers.) Our house was not only fu...more
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For a fictional view of what it was like growing up in my family, see Absolutely Normal Chaos. (In that book, the brothers even have the same names as my own brothers.) Our house was not only fu...more
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