Susan answers “Is this book appropriate for children? It...”

Margie asked this question about The Crystal Cave (Arthurian Saga, #1):

Is this book appropriate for children? It has a reading level rating of 5.7 (fifth grade). It's also classified under children's books on Amazon, but my sister mentioned that it may not be appropriate for her. She's a very mature 8 year old, reading at 7th grade level. Can handle violence and dark subject matter fine. She's finishing the Harry Potter series now and loves it.

Susan Specific to your question, I would agree most closely with Scott's answer. It's written for adults (despite the easy-to-read 5th-6th-grade level of la…moreSpecific to your question, I would agree most closely with Scott's answer. It's written for adults (despite the easy-to-read 5th-6th-grade level of language complexity). It is possible a 12-year-old may not pick up on some of the sexual situations and innuendo, however, or be mature enough to handle. But keep in mind it's told rather frankly in the first person by Merlin himself looking back at his life starting with an early childhood memory--following a third-person prologue about his mystical, mythical conception--through the point at which the future King Arthur is conceived. There are no explicit sex scenes (that I remember); if it were a movie, I would probably rate it PG-13.

Other responses are also accurate: It's amazingly well-written, as well as exhaustively researched. This is no Harry Potter-type wizard story, nor is it anything like the BBC TV series, which in itself contradicts most of the Arthur/Merlin legends I was familiar with. In her endnotes, Mary Stewart details how she came to write the book, taking into account the many existing Merlin legends (most closely following the version from "The Once and Future King," if I recall correctly) and compiling them all into a single cohesive narrative told from Merlin's point of view, focusing on his character and development from a child to a young adult. As part of her research, she visited the locales in which the events of Merlin's life most likely took place and has attempted to incorporate known history during the time of the Roman occupation of Britain into a believable backstory, filling in the blanks between legends and bringing the character to life. In doing so, she portrays him as likable, relatable, and HUMAN. It's left to the reader to decide how much actual MAGIC is involved in the best-known tales about him, so, while he is a most engaging character and there is some mystery surrounding certain events in his life, this Merlin is very clever and well-educated with potentially royal blood and thus could have accomplished these feats without magic, so don't expect a lot of intentional spellcasting. "The Crystal Cave" reads more like a historical and detailed "true" story of Merlin before it was embellished with magic and the supernatural in the re-re-re-re-retelling of the Arthurian legends.

I would recommend that children become familiar with the traditional, more magical Arthurian legends (Disney's movie "The Sword in the Stone" comes to mind, or even the movie "Excalibur," although, as a movie, it might be a little long depending on the individual child's attention span, or the TV miniseries about Merlin starring Sam Neill) before peering "behind the curtain" to see the true history and locales and how the supposed magic might actually have been done. IMHO, this first installment in Mary Stewart's "Merlin Trilogy" would be more enjoyable and intriguing if read AFTER one already knows the characters and events from more traditional versions.

I started the second book in the trilogy, which picks up immediately where The Crystal Cave left off, but found it slower going than this one and have put it aside in favor of other books that caught my attention. This one was more difficult to put down! I even found her account at the end about how she wrote the first installment compelling and educational.(less)

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The Crystal Cave

by Mary Stewart

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