The Angry Little Knight

by Annette Langen, Katja Gehrmann (Illustrations)

The Angry Little Knight, otherwise known as Hothead, is tired of “practice” fighting. He wants a real adventure. But when he rides his trusty steed into the dark forest, he finds more than he bargained a little dragon that is just as bad-tempered as he is. Will the dragon eat the knight? Will the knight slay the dragon? Both little hotheads are in for a surprise, and the dark forest will never be the same again.

Genres: Dragons, Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2013

About the author

Annette Langen is a German author of children’s and young adult literature, best known for her picture book series about Felix, a traveling stuffed rabbit.

Reviews

[Kaya Kobold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wie erklärt man 4 Jungs die Brückenkonstruktion?
:-) Einer meinte, es könnte eine Hängebrücke sein.
Warum ist Borste auf einem Bild klein und auf dem anderen Bild viel größer als der Ritter?

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The child Hothead believes he is all that, playing all day as a knight. Once in the forest he gets lost in the dark, and needs to rely on its only source of light, a dragon. All of a sudden Hothead's behaviour changes, yet because the author fails to impress upon us a sense of atmosphere, or the boys feelings, this turn is inexplicable.

Clearly the author is trying to be funny through exaggeration, but she tries too hard, expressing everything to the extreme rather than selecting key words for their effectiveness.

The images are done with some beautiful paints, and visible brushstrokes for the backgrounds. Yet there are too few pictures, which means the words are relied on too much to describe things. In one instance, the forest is described as dark and gloomy, but the images are on a white background. Children will find it difficult to pay attention to such a lengthy story, especially one which does not use techniques like repetition, or pleasing sounds. Finally, due to the tales density, the overall message would have been lost if not for the summary the author provides at the end.

[Cecilia · Rating 1 out of 5]

There were times when the pictures didn't match the main action in the paragraphs designated for the page. There were times the writing seemed to randomly jumpcut to a different idea without a smooth or even understood transition. Also, the writing could have been simplified (not as in use easier words, but as in use less words) as they seemed redundant or too circular. I thought it had a lot of potential, but I was largely disappointed.

[Alyson (Kid Lit Frenzy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute friendship story

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this one.