This book was absolutely adorable. I read it with my 8 year old niece, who didn't understand all of the jokes, but loved the characters and the setting. I highly recommend this for parents who want to get a good laugh at the books they read with their kids. Definitely written for fun to all parties.

When I requested John Powell’s Saint George: Rusty Knight and Monster Tamer from NetGalley sometime last year, I confess I totally thought it was going to be a story of the legend of St. George, who is often portrayed as a slayer of dragons. That, of course, wasn’t the case at all (ha, oops!), but it was a really enjoyable read. Part of the novelty for my daughter was reading together on my Kindle (ooohhh! exciting!), but she really did enjoy the book and so did I.
The Goodreads synopsis is super short:
Humorous tales about an impoverished knight in old England who discovers a way to tame the great variety of monsters that roam the land in the days of Good King Freddie the Umteenth and his prime minister Merlin the Whirlin.
“Humorous” is the perfect word to describe the story. If I remember correctly, Powell says in the beginning of the book that he originally came up with these stories as bedtime stories for his kids – and you can tell! They’re just funny and perfectly geared toward little kids. They follow a predictable structure (all of them start with “Now it was in the days of Good King Freddie…”) and in each story Saint George has to take on some ridiculous monster problem or another – which usually can be solved by providing the monsters with the magical, monster-taming marmorguglehupf cake (my daughter thought that word was hilarious).
The stories are full of all sorts of absurdities with names just as outlandish as marmorguglehupf cake, ideas like George’s “armor-on week” and “armor-off week” (during which he sleeps – for the whole week!), and other silly, non-sensical things (like a king who can’t read!). The crazy names and nonsense action reminded me a good deal of Roald Dahl, and prompted the same kind of laughter from my daughter as did The BFG. There were only two drawbacks for me with the books: 1) each story was a little too long to be a bedtime read-aloud but it didn’t work to break them up so we just pushed through a whole story in each sitting; and 2) there was one entire story that REALLY is not suited for American kids – or their parents! We just couldn’t follow the thread on playing cricket (our loss, though – I’m sure to a British kid the story would’ve been as hilarious as the rest).
All in all, I’d give it 4 stars and definitely recommend it! I think it’ll be another year or two before my next daughter is ready for it, but I’ll look forward to rereading the silliness with her when she’s ready!

originally reviewed here: http://theedifyingword.com/2018/07/30/book-review-st-george-rusty-knight-and-monster-tamer-by-john-powell/

Saint George: Rusty Knight and Monster Tamer by John Powell is a collection of short stories that left me wondering about the intended audience. The tone is fun and humorous, suitably silly for young readers that might enjoy it, but some of the humor seemed to be geared towards adults. The short stories tell of an impoverished knight in old England who discovers a way to tame the great variety of monsters that roam the land in the days of Good King Freddie the Umteenth and his prime minister Merlin the Whirlin.

Saint George: Rusty Knight and Monster Tamer is humorous and silly, with each of the short stories able to read one their own. This might make it a good pick for readers looking for short fun reads, because it is easy to read a single tale and put it aside until you are ready for more. I found the tone to be a bit childish, but at the same time there were bits about private parts and getting drunk, making it not quite right for some younger readers. To be honest, the stories really did not hold my attention well. Which made the fact that I could read a bit and the put it aside a good thing. I can see the appeal for some readers, but it just never grabbed me.

'Saint George: Rusty Knight and Monster Tamer' by John Powell is a series of short stories of a knight who lucks into a cure for taming monsters.

In Old England, Good King Freddie the Umteenth is king. His prime minister is Merlin the Whirlin. When monsters plague the land, he looks for someone do deal with them. Someone who will work cheaply. He finds George. George finds a solution. The good news is he can tame the monsters. The bad news is that the monsters better not show up on one of George's "armor off" weeks.

The stories are humorous, satirical and fun. There are drawings throughout the book and they help serve the stories that they are in. This would be a fun book to read to younger folks. They might not get all the subtle humor, but there is a lot to enjoy here.

I received a review copy of this ebook from The Book Guild, Troubador Publishing Limited, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would and I appreciated the humor in it.

Although I didn't quite finish this book as the storyline wasn't my kind of genre I think a lot of younger children, especially boys will appreciate this book and enjoy the witty storyline.

England has a monster of a problem.....monsters. Good King Freddie and prime minister Merlin the whirlin realise St Cuthbet, patron saint and minister for the environment is getting passed his best and so need to look for a new candidate. Enter George, an unemployed impoverished knight so down on his luck he had to buy his armour in a charity shop. I doesn't fit well and the visor has a tendency to drop at inopportune times....

I read this with my daughter who at 5 didn't get all the jokes but to be fair I think some are quite adult anyway (in a perfectly innocent way). Reading this I was reminded of Tom Holt at his irreverent best. Almost every sentence is funny and delightfully daft. I'd definitely recommend this for kids around 9+ and for any parents with a slightly silly sense of humour. This is Monty Python meets Tom Holt, a wonderful read.

I received this book from Netgalley for an unbiased review.

A very entertainig book, that all three of my boys enjoyed hugely. As we live in Austria, we especially liked George's adventure in Tyrol and the author's use of the Marmorgugelhupf cake, which we just call Marmorgugelhupf - without the cake!

The stories presented here are meant to be cute and fun. These are not meant to have big valuable lessons taught, and most chapters can be read as a standalone short story. Topics referenced include global warming, the Titanic, leadership roles (i.e. Prime Minister), the Olympics, and others.

Unfortunately, being an adult, I started to become uninterested in these stories during the last third of the book. My attention wasn’t sustained, and for me, the ending couldn’t have come sooner. Part of this is the chapter that is mainly about the game, Cricket. Children may not know this game, I certainly am not familiar with the rules and the different positions, so I found it hard to keep focused during this section.

Aside from my attention, I found some of the text inappropriate for children. For one, there are phrases used here that are not English. It seems to me phrases such as “nouveau gateau de Cherburg” and “mal de mar” are perhaps French. I know some Spanish and little Italian, neither of which helped me to decipher the first phrase, while the second one I have a guess. In other words, those who would like to read this book with their children, you might want to look up these phrases and/or words.

I will also caution that there are quite a few references to what is underneath a man’s kilt. In particular, I found it rather odd that within one chapter this was mentioned two or three times.

Lastly, there is a clear reference of one person becoming drunk. Depending on the age of the child, some parents may not want to have topics as private parts and getting drunk as jokes. I know I would be concerned if things were said to their peers about these topics.