The Lost Years of Merlin :: Book Sharing Monday - Eva Varga

After enjoying the NBC series this summer, Merlin, the kids have been clamoring to learn more about him. They were delighted when we finally finished SOTW1 and started in on the Middle Ages, knowing that the stories of Arthur and the others would soon be part of our curriculum.

Imagine their delight then when we stumbled across The Lost Years of Merlin by T.A. Barron at our local library. The Lost Years is the first of 5 books in an epic story of the great wizard Merlin—the great mage of Camelot and mentor to King Arthur. In these books, he reveals at last the secrets of his lost youth. Though we have only just begun our journey with Merlin (we finished chapter 10 last night), the author has captivated our interest with this truly human dimension to the lore of a fascinating, immensely rich character.

The tale begins when a young boy washes ashore, nearly drowned, on page one of Book One of The Lost Years of Merlin. It will finally concludes when that same young man, now a wizard, makes the most agonizing choice of his life in the final pages of Book Five.

We likely will not read all five books this year, however. As with most trilogies and books in a series, I like to read the first to spark their interest but leave the other for their personal discovery when they become independent readers. I look forward to our book talks in the years to come.

Older children will also enjoy T.A. Baron’s website where you can find links to his other books, a calendar of his upcoming appearances, maps of the lands in his books, as well as games and quizzes.