Obtain Immediately Jackaroo (Tales Of The Kingdom, #1) Illustrated By Cynthia Voigt Available In PDF
book is more of a,star read. I read the second book of the series back in high school and loved it however, I did not realize it was part of a series until years later.
I do not know if I would have given this book such a low rating had I read it back in highschool with the other one or if the second book really is that much better.
Overall, this book bored me until the lastpages and then confused me for the last, I thought Gwyn was an interesting character and I did like how she bucked the system and did what she thought was right, I did not like how she seemed to become "weaker" and more unsure of herself after Jackaroo was introduced to the story, I also would classify this more as a historical fiction taking place in an unknown land rather than fantasy, I am glad I picked this one up but I will probably not be finishing the series, I came across this book in a thrift store and bought it because I enjoyed a few other books by the author, I ended up really loving it and read it several times as a young adult,.
I read this twice, probably first in middle school and then again while I was in high school,
I really like that the heroine dressed as a male and was able to help people, like Robin Hood, I love stories of girls dressing as boys and taking on other roles,
The hero liked her sister, but her sister married someone else, So I had a real problem that he liked her sister, The heroine liked a guy but he didn't like her, I really didn't like that they both liked other people, and it felt like they came together because they were both left single and jilted, Not very romantic. I remember a moment when she was looking at someone who was hanging, and the hero noticed it too, No one else did, and she made a comment like she would only be with someone who had noticed that, Her hair was also cut short, and I don't like when characters do that, She might have been ill at one point, and in the Jackaroo costume, and he discovered that it was her then, That's all I can really remember, A Robin Hood tale, centered on a girl named Gwyn, who one day has the injustice of the system driven home for her, . . and decides to try to make a difference, Fast, compelling read, with welldeveloped characters that unfold over the course of the book, showing hidden depths, The world building is peppered throughout, woven in seamlessly, which means some areas aren't complete, but all the vital framework is explained, Looking forward to the new main character in book! There is much want in the kingdom and the tales of Jackaroo, the masked outlaw who helps the poor in times of trouble, are on everyone's lips.
Gwyn, the innkeeper's lively daughter, pays little attention to the tales, But when she is stranded during a snowstorm in a cabin with the lordling Gaderian, and finds a strange garment that resembles the costume Jackaroo is said to wear, she begins to wonder.
I love books set in the middle ages, This book had a very medieval feel to it and the author describes life as seen through the eyes of the main character, Gwyn, very realistically, The world system is hierarchial, with the kings down to the people, There is a lot of political unrest as well as famine in the land, The people are desperate and Gwyn thinks that their tales of Jackaroo are only thattales made by desperate people who need some hope to cling on to, Gwyn is also troubled by what she sees and the lack of caring in the others around her, She wants to help
I appreciate how the book makes one think about how hard life was back then, How no matter what class they lived in, life was hard for a person, Gwyn had hard choices to make, and it was even harder to be a woman, This book is definitely not a simple "comfort read", I also enjoyed trying to figure out who was the Jackaroo figure RobinHood type hero, I was quite surprised at part of the secret, I did guess that Gwyn would become Jackaroo, as I'm sure most readers will, but I will not give away the rest of the secrets that are in store for the readers in regards to Jackaroo.
Yes, there are more than one secret! Gwyn is a strong heroine who young readers can look up to, This book is a clean read, It is for young adults and up, Gwyn, the Innkeeper's daughter, isand does not plan to marry, After witnessing multiple acts of cruelty against the Inn's neighbors, Gwyn decides the myth of the Jackaroo might be of more use than she first thought,
. I've been so anxietyplagued and numb these last few months that I've been struggling to read anything at all, especially newtome books I read somewhere, once, that a person needs to be in a position of comfort in order to explore new vistas and I think there may be some truth to it, after all.
That said, I first read Jackaroo years and years ago when I would browse the'young adult' shelving units at BampN in my hometown and pick up anything that sounded interesting.
Remember when YA wasn't a moneymaking industry riddled with subgenres I DO, I remember Uglies shelved on the same row as Jackaroo, Talk about tonal whiplash.
. I enjoyed this reread. I enjoyed the sensation of Gwyn discovering herself, defining herself, and choosing a direction for herself in spite of the people around her or rather because of the people around her.
It was very inspiring, in some ways, I vaguely remembering picking this off the YA shelf in the library sometime around eighth grade, but somehow my brain categorized it as "sad" a la Westmark read around the same time and I never revisited this until now.
I'm glad I did, because it turns out that Jackaroo is a comingofage story, The exciting thing about it, though, is that it's only ultimately one for most of the novel it reads as a fantasy uniquely marked by a pervasive sense of doom.
Where poverty and desperation hem everyone in, Where an early death is more a surety than its opposite and danger, in the form of neighbors and egos and weather, lurks around every corner,
The satisfactory ending is almost a relief because it's a respite, maybe a promise of better things to come,
The surprise of the details revealed the omnipresence of a legend, the suggestion of blurred history along with the wealth of historical detail parceled out slowly, the way current events and the next meal take stronger precedence over everything else mean the world feels rich and layered.
There's always something new to discover that will change the shape of your perception, And the faint horror overlaying it all burnishes the details further, highlights the lack of options, and demonstrates how brave and vital Gwyn's story is,
Here's somebody headstrong who isn't rewarded for being different, but penalized for it who hems herself in and chooses a path and finds something she didn't expect.
Something that would have been obvious to me if I'd realized I was reading
a comingofage story, .