Product Description

Life in Sherwood Forest has never been livelier than with this selection of tales of the fun-loving outlaw and his merry men. A fast-moving adaptation of the classic adventure will delight older slow readers as well as kids reading on grade level.  

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #169081 in Books
• Published on: 1991-09-24
• Released on: 1991-09-24
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Card catalog description
Robin Hood, Maid Marian, and the merry outlaws of Sherwood Forest repeatedly outwit the sheriff of Nottingham and befriend the poor.

From the Inside Flap
Life in Sherwood Forest has never been livelier than with this selection of tales of the fun-loving outlaw and his merry men. A fast-moving adaptation of the classic adventure will delight older slow readers as well as kids reading on grade level.

Customer Reviews

poorly written
While the story is fun and exciting, the sentence structure in the book is very disappointing. I recognize that it may be the author's style to add emphasis to ideas by writing them as stand-alone sentences, even if they are fragments. However, the children who are reading this book are usually also just learning how to write a good sentence; so the basic rule that a sentence should be a complete thought is more important in books for early readers than in books written for older audiences.
I was also frustrated because it would have been so easy for the author to write her thoughts in complete sentences. Many fragments could easily have been written as the second half of a compound sentence.
Some examples from page 6:
"The lad agreed. And he beat the man. Fair and square."
"But the man was angry. And embarrassed."
"Like most outlaws, he stole. But only from the rich."

Nearly perfect for the intended audience
I bought this book to read with my 7 year old, and I am pretty well pleased with it. The vocabulary is simple, the sentences are short (and often start with the word "and"; my grade school teachers would be appalled), but the tale is told effectively and accessibly for young readers.

Also, unlike some other books for young readers (e.g. the Droon series), this book does not simplify to the point of eliminating all of the descriptive passages. When Robin disguises himself as a musician, he wears "feathers of many colors" and carries a harp. There's not enough description to interfere with the pace for impatient children, but there is enough detail to hang your imagination off of.

As for the story, there were some frustrating omissions. The origin of Robin Hood is given only a few paragraphs in the introduction, and the tales of how Will Scarlet and Friar Tuck joined the band are missing. The book only tells how Little John joined. The rest just sort of show up later in the story. I'm sure that was done to keep the pace of the story moving, but it would have been good to have more of the stories written in this same style.

The rest of the story is a reasonably solid narration of the traditional tale of Robin Hood, with no more than the usual level of variation. I definitely recommend this book as a good way to introduce children to the story of Robin Hood, though I like the Dover Children's Thrift Classics edition slightly better.

"Robin Hood" is great, a classic!
I am 6 years old in first grade and I love this book! I like the characters best. It's great. The words were not hard for me. I've got 20,000 Leagues under the sea, the last of the Mohicans, Robin Hood, and Kidnapped, and Robin Hood is one of the best of these.