The Book High

The events in this one are much less exciting and logical than in the others I've read. The reason why the children are captured by the men in the castle is never clearly given, nor is the reason why they're placed into a storage room. The very storage room that fortunately just happens to have the secret passageway mentioned in Jack's book...

However, the descriptions of the castle, given both from Annie and Jack's pov and from the book, were fascinating, thorough, and historically accurate. As were the details about the armor. And the fantastically beautiful illustrations once again served to make these descriptions even more vivid.

Also interesting to me in this one was the dichotomy between Jack's determination to learn all he could about the castle from his book and Annie's determination to explore the castle for herself. Jack finally being convinced that he should go see the REAL castle has to be one of the first times I've read a children's book in which it seems that children are being encouraged to experience the world for themselves instead of reading about it. It just fascinated me that such a concept should be directed at so young an audience.