Rating: My bookshelf

Reading Level: Middle School, (Mid-late Elementary Needs Parent Supervision)

Quite a finale to the Chronicles of Prydain series! You definitely need to read books 1,2,3, and 4 first. Definitely. I loved it. I especially love how it has themes that are so reflective of the Gospel.

Possible Concerns:

  • Death. There is a lot of death in this one.  Tragic death all over.  At one point I exclaimed, “They killed him off too?!!!” So your young readers need to be able to handle a lot of people losing their lives.
  • Romance. Nothing graphic.  Just sweet youth who have each other in their hearts.
  • Fantasy. The same kind of enchantments, evil creatures, magic, ghostly armies, and so on that we have seen in previous books in the series.

Things I liked/Discussion questions (spoiler alerts!):

  • Sacrifice. Taran gives up a life of eternal bliss to serve people in the world of Prydain. He is warned that it may be a life of suffering, and that people may never thank him, but he is resolute. Has anyone ever given up something to serve you? Why do you think they did that?
  • Keeping Promises. Taran keeps his word to Rhun about rebuilding a sea wall. Have you ever had a situation where it was difficult to keep your word? Perhaps you had to give something up to do so?
  • Trust. Gwydion has trouble trusting Achren. How do we handle repentant people who have harmed us? Should we trust them?
  • Deceit. Dahlben explains to the Prydarian king that he was betrayed by his evil comrade, explaining that he will surely die when he completes his charge. How does the enemy manipulate and lie to you?
  • Providence. In what ways do we see in this book illustrations of the concept of God working all things (even seemingly bad things) for the good? (hint: the tunnel cave-in tragedy is how Taran finds the essential sword; Achren’s former association with Anuven makes her an excellent guide; Eilonwy’s kidnapping leads to the end of Gorath…)

Here are links to my reviews of other books in the series:

titlelinkratingreading_level
The Book of Threehttps://jesuslovesthebookworms.wordpress.com/?p=2265My bookshelfMiddle school
The Black Cauldronhttps://jesuslovesthebookworms.wordpress.com/2024/07/26/the-chronicles-of-prydain-the-black-cauldron-by-lloyd-alexander/My bookshelfMiddle school
The Castle of Llyrhttps://jesuslovesthebookworms.wordpress.com/2024/05/08/the-chronicles-of-prydain-the-castle-of-llyr-by-lloyd-alexander/My bookshelfMiddle school
Taran Wandererhttps://jesuslovesthebookworms.wordpress.com/2024/05/17/the-chronicles-of-prydain-taran-wanderer-by-lloyd-alexander/My bookshelfMiddle school
The High Kinghttps://jesuslovesthebookworms.wordpress.com/?p=2318My bookshelfMiddle school

*Note: I listened to the audiobook, and will update this post when I read it. I tend to catch more possible concerns from the written page.