Knight Owl
Reviewed by Dr. Jerry Flack
Readers of all ages will get a hoot out of the consummate picture book, Knight Owl, that was this year named by the American Library Association as a Caldecott Honor Book.
This seemingly simple picture book is filled with laugh out-loud word play and cleverness. But, it is also a book about courage, confidence, and diligence. At its core, the story line is about a young night owl who has wanted to become a knight from the day he was first hatched.
Against all odds, Owl qualifies for Knight School. It is a dark time in his homeland. Mysteriously, the nearby castle fortress is being depleted of brave and strong knights.
Despite his diminutive size, the young night owl graduates from Knight School with honors and is appropriately assigned to Knight Night Watch. Other knights often fall asleep during the long, grim evenings, but the night owl is especially alert and vigilant during these same hours.
On one particular eventide, the brave young owl hears strange noises that turn out to come from a fire-breathing dragon who is famished. Initially frightened for his life, the clever nocturnal knight proves his mettle and outwits the first of many colossal dragons to converge on the castle in the perilous hours of darkness. Owl cleverly introduces the terrifying dragon to a new taste sensation: Squires Hot and Delicious Pizza. It is fire roasted on the castle battlements. Because of his fearlessness and ingenuity, the disappearance of other knights, fully dressed in armor, ceases. The once mighty knight-eating dragon and Owl become friends. They have at least two things in common. They were both hatched from eggs and they have trouble explaining to humans the gift of flight.
Christopher Denise uses a luminous but dark palette to appropriately portray the dark ages. His use of allusions and references are joyful. While his mother prepares a meal of night owl delicacies, his father is seen to be reading The Olden Times newspaper with key headlines about missing knights and dragon sightings. The young Owl’s bedroom features a medieval tapestry that pictures King Arthur’s round table and fire-breathing dragons surrounding the perimeter of the castle. At Knight School, the young night owl studies diagrams of duels between knights and dragons and he reads books about chivalry, jousting, and being a proper squire. The human graduates are portrayed in full armor dress as are their majestic steeds. The dark colors also perfectly fit Owl’s nightly duties. Deep shadows symbolize the danger he faces during his castle watch. The firelight conveys the best time to reveal fire-eating dragons in their full menace. Nightime is also the best time to roast Squires flaming hot pizza, the new favorite food of dragons.
Knight Owl is a perfect combination of clever narration and glorious illustrations. It will become a home and classroom favorite.
Home and School Activities
Middle Ages Immersion. For centuries, both children and adults have been enamored by studies of Arthurian legends and medieval times. Information books created by such publishers as the National Geographic Society, Kingfisher, and Dorling Kindersley (DK) are plentiful enough to address multiple ages of readers. (Hint: The Dewey Decimal library catalog number for knights and castles is 940.1). Promote research of such subjects as knights, castles, chivalry, shields, crests and coats of arm, Excalibur, heraldry, dragons, armor plate, chain mail, tapestries, medieval motifs, jesters, squires, pages, catapults, archers, swords, joisting, and much, much more. Once readers are familiar with the myths and history of the Middle Ages, ask young creators to fashion a masterpiece of their own such as a colorful alphabet book, a board game, an illustrated book about knighthood, posters advertising a new museum exhibit about King Arthur, and countless other ingenious projects.
Anthropomorphism is a literary device in which the creator assigns human traits to beings who are not human. Two classic examples are the wolf in “Little Red Riding Hood” and the family of bears in “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” Readers know that night owls cannot speak, read, or serve as medieval knights. They also know that dragons do not exist and definitely do not enjoy Squires pizzas. Suggest gifted writers to create a heroic story with a nonhuman protagonist that possesses human attributes. It may help to use the newspaper reporters 5 Ws: who, what, when, where, and why to generate typical human attributes to give to their protagonist. Perhaps the hero of their original story is a dog named Winston. What story can they create that gives him human qualities?
Compare and Contrast. Knight Owl is a Caldecott Honor book in 2023. Trina Schart Hyman won the 1985 Caldecott Medal for her illustrations in Saint George and the Dragon (Little, Brown, 1984), a legend retold by Margaret Hodges. The two books are both set in a mythological time period when humans battled terrifying giant dragons. Night Owl has a great, but elementary text. Saint George and the Dragon features a much more detailed narration. Inspire older readers to read Hodges’ sophisticated text. Mentors can share the more advanced story with young readers. Ask middle and secondary readers to compare and contrast the two medieval stories. How alike and different are the illustrations of the two stories about knights and dragons? What is unique about the exquisite borders in Trina Schart Hyman’s illustrations?
Juxtaposition occurs in stories when two or more story elements are placed close together to demonstrate similarities or differences. Squires Pizza and dragons are comical because they do not belong together in the same story. Invite creative students to add yet another contrasting element that might occur in a further expansion of Knight Owl. Could Owl’s Knight School training be learned by using a laptop computer? Better still, suggest to gifted students that they invent an entirely new story with striking juxtaposition of the story elements.
The Middle Ages: Mythology vs. History. Historians differ as to the length of the medieval period. The most common dates for the Middle Ages encompasses 1,000 to 1453 A.D. The latter date reflects the beginning of the Renaissance and the age of discovery. King Arthur and the Crusades demonstrate the difference between myths and documented history. Historians cannot confirm the real existence of King Arthur. Storytellers from Wales and England place King Arthur in the sixth century. His reality is lost in the mists of time, but the Arthurian legends definitely surround him with knights. One fact is known. He and his knights did not participate in The Crusades. Mythology gives way to history during the eleventh century (i.e., Battle of Hastings, 1066). The Knights Templar were prominent in history from c. 1119 to c. 1312. Suggest students investigate knighthood stemming from mythology until documented history. Suggest a colorful illustrated timeline of knights. Also, ask readers to determine if knights still exist in the twenty-first century. Do students know the procedure for becoming a knight? In olden times, there were three stages to achieve knighthood. Boys became pages at age seven and squires at fourteen years or above. Knighthood was conferred by the age of twenty-one. Only a king or another knight could make a squire a knight. Women knights did exist, particularly in France and Spain. Joan of Arc is the most famous among female knights (also called dames). Urge student researchers to use the Internet to learn more about women as knights from the Crusades to the present day.
Denise, Christopher. Knight Owl. New York: Little, Brown, 2022. Caldecott Honor Book, 2023.
