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Since their mother’s death, three years before, eleven year-old Corrie and her five brothers and sisters have had only one another to hold onto. Lost in his classes and his research and his book, their professor father seems largely oblivious to them, the sad state of the house and garden, and the terrible meals the housekeeper leaves for them.
And so it is that fifteen year-old Sebastian has become the head of the household, responsible for his younger siblings. It is he who keeps a gentle rein on the rather wild six year-old twins, Orly and Juliet, draws up schedules for meal preparation and dish washing, decides bedtimes, and doles out allowances. It is Sebastian, as Sir Lancelot, who has created the knights of the Round Table and who, in the absence of King Arthur, their father, presides over their meetings, reads to them from the old legends, and taught them the Code of Chivalry.
Though, at fourteen, Roz seems to be chafing at Sebastian’s rule, Corrie, Harry, and the twins are eager participants in the knightly gatherings, and long for the day when they will undergo their trials before being dubbed knights by Sir Lancelot. As Sir Lancelot’s squire, Corrie – Master Cor – enjoys a close relationship with Sebastian, and fiercely defends him against any who might scoff at his preoccupation with knights and heraldry, or laugh at his shoulder-length hair.
At home, he is the perfect gentle knight, looked up to by his brothers and sisters, but Sebastian’s life at school is miserable. A target of the class bullies, he is friendless and the victim of constant verbal and physical assaults. Though Corrie worries about her brother, and longs to find the courage to tell her father about her concerns, Sebastian tells her that everything is fine, and that she is not to trouble Fa.
After three years without any close friends of her own, Corrie finds herself drawn to Meredith, whose cheerful determination to become friends breaks down the walls that Corrie has put up around herself. Meredith is bright and perceptive, curious about the Bell siblings, and the game they seem to play together. When she finally worms the story of the Round Table out of Corrie, Meredith wants to play, too, and Corrie struggles to nurture their growing friendship while remaining faithful to Sir Lancelot.
When Roz becomes wrapped up in clubs and her friends, and Sebastian suddenly grows remote, Corrie must shoulder responsibility for her younger siblings, while watching anxiously as her family spirals out of control.
Set in the late 1950s in Vancouver, Kit Pearson’s A Perfect Gentle Knight is a compelling story about grief and loyalty. Quite simply, a beautiful tale!
FernFolio Editor