Monday 28 July 2008

My Thoughts: Gatty by Kevin Crossley-Holland


Today had the most stunning weather, I enjoyed it by doing a tiny bit of gardening and sunbathing with this book. I managed to read the whole book in pretty much one go as it was such a good read.
Gatty is a land girl, with no one in the world except for her cow, Hopeless and her 7 chickens. One day she is called upon out of the blue to be a chambermaid to Lady Gwyneth, because of her wonderful singing voice. Lady Gwyneth believes that Gatty's voice will protect her, and those she is taking with her on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The voyage holds many problems, adventures and tales, as well as transforming Gatty from a young restless girl to a well rounded young woman.

This is one of the books I'll be putting up on my wall of recommended reads at school. Its a fantastic tale, well written and well steeped in history. Its full of historical and religious contexts but as Gatty has led a fairly secluded life they need to be explained to her, and thus to the reader who may have little knowledge of this time and of religion (especially in England where RE tends not to focus on Christianity from what I remember of school). Definately well worth a read.
This is the first of the Carnegie shortlist for 2008 that I am planning on reading, then winner has been announced but I like to read as many of them as can. As this didn't win I'm expecting the winner to be great.
Challenges:
YA Challenge Book 4 of 12
If you have read this book leave a link to your post here and I'll put it in my post

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I read this book last year, and really enjoyed it. Have you read any of Crossly-Holland's other Arthur books? Apparently they feature Gatty as well.

Oh and was your copy the one with the semi-translucent slip cover?

katrina said...

No, it didn't have a translucent cover.
I haven't read any of his other books but I will be keeping an eye out for them