This week’s “book talk” book is The Outlaws of Sherwood, by Robin McKinley. My favorite genre of books is historical fiction, so I love stories centered around events in European history especially, as this one does. I know that many many books have been written about Robin Hood by many different authors and I thought this one was really good.
Previous to reading this story, I had seen the Robin Hood cartoon and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, but neither very recently. I can’t remember how much information they give you about Robin Hood’s background in those movies. In this book, the story begins before Robin is an outlaw, so it is interesting to watch Robin’s character evolve from being a simple forester to the outlaw leader.
My favorite part about this story in general, but this version in particular, is the characters. Robin Hood, one of my all time favorite characters, is a classic hero character who stands for justice, loyalty, and courage.
I enjoyed the sweet romance of Robin and Marian, and an interesting twist in this particular version is an additional romance between Little John and a special new character (I won’t ruin her name for you!).
This book can be found in the juvenile/young adult fiction section of the library or a bookstore. It’s a quick and highly pleasurable read! Let VanillaJoy know what you think!
[Robin Hood memorial statue in Nottingham]
