Cedric, a poor but brave knight who grew up on a pumpkin farm, trains hard and rescues a prince and princess from a fire-breathing dragon (though in a clever and non-violent way). When the princess says she’d like to marry him (a nice bit of self-empowerment for a fairy tale princess), he gently demurs, saying he wants to marry the prince instead.
The king at first denies permission for the wedding without explanation, but then relents. At first, I thought the unexplained refusal might confuse children, but perhaps if children have encountered homophobia in the real world, this may give them the assurance that some people do change their minds. Readers might also simply put the king’s brief reluctance down to the fact that the couple just met.
The Bravest Knight smartly centers around the protagonist’s chivalric adventures, though, rather than his bride-seeking parents a la the earlier King & King, although the knight here still eventually encounters his love interest. King and King also has all of the other characters pressuring the prince to marry a princess; in The Bravest Knight, there is no such pressure, even though the story subtly conveys that the knight is defying expectations by marrying the prince. Ultimately, though, the king here is much more understanding than the royal parents of King and King. I also like that author Daniel Errico conveys that Cedric knew he was gay from the time he was a boy, refusing a rose that a girl offers him.
The meter and rhyme keep the story trotting along like a knight’s horse. The illustrations, by Mo Qovaizi, are warm and cheery.
See also my interview with Errico about the Hulu television show based on the book, now available in the new edition shown here.
