The Kestrel

The Kestrel
by Lloyd Alexander
Recommended Ages: 12+

In this sequel to Westmark, the picaresque adventures of former printer's devil Theo and his rogues gallery of friends and enemies turns into a tale of war when the neighboring kingdom decides to invade. Theo, sent out by Westmark's king to take the temperature of the kingdom, gets caught behind enemy lines and forced to fight alongside anti-monarchist rebels Florian, Justin and friends. Meantime he is separated from the love of his life, a sometime beggar girl he knows as Mickle, but who has lately been revealed to be Princess Augusta. Soon enough, Princess becomes Queen and, after sneaking out of the royal palace, makes her way to the front and takes command of her country's retreating army.

Before the two young lovers meet again, Theo's belief that killing is wrong will be tested to the point that he becomes the Kestrel, a guerrilla warrior whose raids terrify the enemy. Also abroad in the theater of war are two innocent children, a consumptive cartoonist, a bombastic master of disguise and deception, a spoiled young king who hasn't learned to distinguish between toy soldiers and live ones, and various shades of bad guys ranging from blackest villainy to pale-gray treachery - from almost sympathetic figures who find themselves trapped by their own bad choices, to downright monsters who threaten the existence of everything good. There are deep conflicts between sympathetic characters. There are characters (Theo included) who struggle with their conscience. There are momentous conflicts affecting the future of entire nations. Yet through it all, the story encourages the reader to care most about whether young Theo and Mickle/Augusta will find each other, and whether the two waifs and their satirical protector will ditto.

There is a third book in this series, titled The Beggar Queen, which I have found it a little harder to come by than the first two. Be patient while I explore options other than the regional library system, which knows nothing about it. It's a shame that the drive toward holding only new and up-to-date titles is driving the all-but-classic works of storytellers like Lloyd Alexander off library shelves. Books like the Prydain Chronicles, The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian, The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha, The Fortune-Tellers, The Iron Ring, The Rope Trick and The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio have, I would think, a timeless place among the masterpieces of American-made children's literature. Also, I'm unnerved at the prospect of all the effort it will cost to get hold of the six-book "Vesper Holly" series, which I have yet to read. At least, thanks to the Internet, one no longer has to take one's chances at the local library.