Narrator Steve West and these retellings of King Arthur's Knights are a match made in heaven.
For the first group of these comical and witty adventures, Sir Lancelot the Great, West adopts a hint of a French accent for Sir Lancelot, who leaves France to join King Arthur's court. The vain knight, obsessed with keeping his armor clean, unwittingly fends off a series of challengers as he attempts to shine his armor, only to discover he's won a tournament sponsored by King Arthur. Sir Lancelot slips out of seemingly inescapable circumstances--falling for a trap that finds him armorless in a tree, and being thrown into a dungeon until he chooses a Lady to wed. West inhabits an array of humorous voices for these mooning Ladies ("He's soooo handsome," one repeats).
West deftly handles a variety of personalities, making each sound distinct. He takes on a disarmingly adolescent voice for Sir Givret the Short (star of the second group of stories), who defends Queen Guinevere's honor against insult from a rude Sir Yoda and also gives King Arthur a way out of the double-edged prize for bringing down the White Stag. West tackles Gerald Morris's turns of phrase with ease. Sir Gawain the True, for instance, begins with a humorous treatise on the importance of courtesy in King Arthur's court. And West reveals the history of Excalibur and the Round Table in Sir Balin the Ill-Fated as if letting readers in on a secret. Enthralling. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness