A PERFECT GENTLE KNIGHT:
It is 1957 and the six children in the Bell family are struggling to cope after their mother's death. Because their father has retreated into his books and his teaching, the older children try to run the family. The eldest, Sebastian, has begun the game of Knights of the Round Table, which at first they all find a comforting escape. But the safety of the game is threatened when Roz, the second eldest, begins to be more interested in junior high school than pretending. The main character of the book, eleven-year-old Corrie, feels increasingly torn between being loyal to Sebastian and the Round Table and to her new friend Meredith. When Sebastian seems unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality, Corrie tries desperately to hold her family together.About this novel:
When I was ages nine to twelve and living in Vancouver, I spent all my free time playing games with my two best friends. We pretended to be Robin Hood, Greek gods, horses, cowboys, the kids in the Narnia books and, most of all, knights of the Round Table. I was Sir Lancelot, and my friends were Sir Gawaine and Sir Galahad. We also made up stories about our tiny "Steiff" stuffed animals: mine was a rabbit called Susie.When I moved to Edmonton at age twelve I was devastated at losing not only my friends but the games we played. I tried to pretend by myself but it wasn't nearly as engrossing. Of course I was becoming too old to pretend, but I had a very hard time accepting this. As the Bronte sisters did in their complicated games, I found these fantasy worlds both enriching and dangerous. Pretending to be different characters certainly developed my imagination and helped me create characters when I became a writer. But the games were so alluring that it was difficult to let them go and live in the real world.
In this novel I tried to show both the power and the danger of imagination. At first playing knights is a comfort for the grief-stricken Bell family, but eventually the three older ones have to give up the game to grow.
I set this book in the 1950s because it was much more common for children to play pretending games then. I really enjoyed remembering that innocent time!
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