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The king is coming to visit! The lord and lady of Camdenton Manor must work quickly to prepare fo his arrival. It will take weeks to ready rooms, set up tents, and prepare the feast itself. Everyone is busy hunting and hawking, brewing and churning. This will be a feast to remember!
Medieval Feast ANNOTATION Describes the preparation and celebration of a medieval feast held at an English manor house entertaining royal guests.
FROM THE PUBLISHER The King is coming to visit! For the lord and lady of Camdenton Manor, the announcement from the palace is an awesome challenge. The King travels with his Queen and court: rooms must be readied, tents set up, fields fenced for the royal horses-and above all, there is the great feast to concoct. The preparations take weeks. There is hunting and hawking, milling and baking, brewing and churning .... Then, in the great vaulted kitchen, the cooking begins in earnest! One after another the sumptuous dishes emerge — succulent roasts, birds baked in Pies, and fantastic sculptures of pastry and marzipan. And to the music of minstrels, while jugglers juggle and jesters jest, the guests in the Great Hall eat their way through it all. The lord gives his King a feast to remember! With A Medieval Feast Aliki creates a joyful extravaganza to bring the character and color of a distant world tantalizingly close.
FROM THE CRITICS Children's Literature - Mary Quattlebaum One of my favorite "feast" books! Aliki tells the story of an old English lord's preparations for the king's visit. The lord realizes that a feast such as the King and his retinue expect can seriously deplete his fortune, but still he sets his household scurrying to redecorate the Royal Suite and to hunt, fish, brew, harvest, grind, and cook a vast array of foodstuffs. Aliki drew upon illuminated manuscripts and medieval tapestries for her picture designs, and the colors are rich and glowing. Through the story and pictures, children glimpse may details of medieval life: the use of trenchers (bread plates), fingers, and spoons for eating; the relationship of serfs to the lord; and even a pie with "four and twenty blackbirds," as in the nursery rhyme.
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