Rewards and Fairies (Wordsworth Collection Children's Library)

Rating:
Summary: Whither wander you, spirit?
Review: If anyone walks up to you today and complains loudly in your face about the recent rise of the "sequel" in popularity, stuff a copy of "Rewards and Fairies" in their face and beg them to know their sequel history. Written as a kind of Part Two to Kipling's previous hit, "Puck of Pook's Hill", "Rewards and Fairies" continues where its predecessor left off. Like the first book, "Rewards" once again follows the tame adventures of little Dan and Una as their adventures with Puck (of "Midsummer Night's Dream" fame) give them new insights into England's fabulous past.

Once again our unlikely heroes (and their unlikely guide) are visited by some relatively obscure but important members of England's great moments. These include everything from a lady of Queen Elizabeth I's court to a half-English half-French smuggler from the years of the French Revolution. Though the stories in this book vary incredibly in quality, Kipling has extended his narrative by quite a bit. Suddenly the kids are meeting a caveman that gave his own eye for a knife and consequently ended up a god amongst his people. Going completely overboard, Kipling includes a smuggler that tells a story about his travels amongst the Seneca of North America. His tale praises (of all people) President George Washington, making the man out to be just shy of a saint. I doubt very much that there are American works of fiction out there that praise our first president even half as much as Kipling's book does here. Some of the characters from the previous book reappear in this one for a brief encore. Once again we meet Harry Dawe, the stonemason who was knighted by King Henry VIII for saving him thirty pounds. There's Sir Richard Dalyngridge again, telling the last and most drawn out boring tale in the lot. In Harry's case, his reappearance is an extension of his somewhat foreshortened previous adventures. In Sir Richard's case, there is no such excuse.

There are things to love in this book, of course. The poems are just shy of brilliant here and there. It's difficult to keep yourself from singing them once in a while. They're just so doggone rhythmic. And there's a lot of humor in these stories too. Puck at one point introduces the kids to an overly affected astrologer who saved a village from the plague (he had the right methods but the wrong reasons). Then there are lines in this book that could keep you awake and twisting for days. How quickly can you say, "I tell you now that a faith which takes care that every man shall keep faith, even though he may save his soul by breaking faith, is the faith for a man to believe in"? Even better, how quickly can you understand it? The book also gives chummy nicknames to some of the world's most infamous men. Suddenly Napolean Bonaparte is being referred to as "Boney" and Sir Francis Drake is reduced to a mere, "Frankie".
The best way to tell if you'll enjoy "Rewards and Fairies" is to read "Puck of Pook's Hill First". If you read that one and enjoyed it then you should have virtually zippo problems with this later creation. Personally, I loved it. I thought it was a great little English History 101 (though I can't exactly remember the difference between the Normans and the Saxons anymore). If you read everything with the exception of the last chapter, I think you'll find it undeniably charming. And who knew Puck enjoyed hearing about business transactions? You could learn a lot from a text like this.