Or, at the very least, in the top five. Seriously. If I was told that I could have my Bible and five other books for the rest of my life, this would be in the pile. Hands down, no questions. I mean, it's really that good. So, for your reading pleasure, one of the best books ever written and adored,"Sir Cedric Rides Again" By Roy Gerrard. This is actually an epic poem (that rhymes!) paired with some beautiful, detailed and downright fun illustrations. I still see new things in those pictures. This is also a book that I have, very nearly, memorized. Or had, at any rate. My parents told me once that when I was very small I could recite the first page in my high-pitched little voice, with proper poetic inflections. Yay!
I think part of my love for this book stems not only from the aforementioned reasons, but also because my dad's dog was named Cedric (from Cedric the Saxon in Ivanhoe, but I didn't know that). I loved that dog, and he loved me too (well, everyone did. I was, frankly, adorable). But not only did I have the book memorized, but my parents loved it too (or at least faked it really well). When they read it, they had voices for each character and different inflections at the proper dramatic parts. Some of my favorite childhood memories involve listening to this story being read aloud (before you judge me for being pathetic, I said some. Not nearly all). Also, it's set in England and later Jerusalem during the reign of Richard the Lionhearted. I'll tell you this again later.
A couple of other points to make:
First of all, I don't know if this book is actually mine, or truly belongs to one of my parents. I have a few beloved books like that, that I borrowed so many times that they eventually ended up on my bookshelf. To be fair, this is one of the only books I have that has a sticker inside (it's a reading mouse looking at an open book that says "This book belongs to Bailey Cavender"). So I'm likely keeping it.
Secondly, just from looking at the thing you can tell it's been given lots of love. I think it had a book jacket once, but that is long since gone. The binding is seriously wounded (in fact, the next time someone offers to fix it for me, I'll let him). The cover has scratches, dents, discoloration, water stains, worn corners and, like I said, it looks like the book will fail out of the cover at any minute (like my old copy of Return of the King. But that's another story). But you open the book, and it is clean and pristine. I kept the pages in mint condition; well, as mint as a twenty-five year old beloved book can look.
OK, now, I have forced friends to read this book, because I love it so much, but in case you escaped, I did include some samples. It's hard to appreciate the wonder of it without reading the poetry :) Again, this is the property of Roy Gerrard.
"Sir Cedric and Lady Matilda
had a daughter, Edwina the Fair,
A beautiful child, but a little bit wild
and she walked with her nose in the air."
These are the opening lines, and he goes on to describe Edwina and talk about how she "caught mice in her hat, she tormented the cat and she loved playing practical jokes...and among other habits was breeding pet rabbits which chewed all her clothing to bits." The illustration in two pages of green leaves with little pictures scattered around it. These include Edwina with her ridiculous hair, an unhappy Matilda and a beaming Cedric, a frog hopping (you can almost not see him), and some of the aforementioned pets. Alright, I'm hooked already.
Then we meet the second best character (after Cedric, of course), who has the bad luck to fall in love with Edwina. His name? Hubert the Hopeless of course! "He was tall, he was skinny, a bit of a ninny, but quit a nice lad all the same. He was frightened of heights and of getting in fights and was totally useless at games. So Edwina, who thought that boys ought to like sport, used to call him some terrible names." Personally, I think Hubert is a really fun character, and he's going to love Edwina always, or so our poet tells us. Also, she does admit that he is cute, although a dork. This page has a picture of Edwina, sitting in a tree poking Hubert's awful (orange, tall and with a huge feather) hat with a stick. Her mom is disapproving, and Sir Cedric isn't paying attention. He does that a lot.
It's a long poem, so I'll just sum up. Sir Cedric decides that they all need a vacation. They decided to go to Jerusalem, which is "somewhere around Palestine." Oh, ps, this is sometime during the reign of Richard the Lionhearted. No Robin Hood cameos, sadly. So the merry band heads out and there are beautifully detailed pictures of the countriside, Edwina annoying people and small animals, a very inaccurate (I assume) picture of the distance and water between France and England, and some fabulous poetry.
Well, when they're in Palestine, the men go hunting. This leaves Edwina, Lady Matilda and some guards. "Edwina was blue that she couldn't go too so she sulked and then wandered away. She went for a ramble and started to scramble up rocks, and was soon out of sight." This is what we call 'bad news bears,' so her mom and the guards are trying to find her. Unfortunately, no soon is Edwina found than "out of their hiding fierce bandits came striding, all hairy and lacking in charm." The illustration shows the fierceness of the bandits, as well as the truly trapped nature of our heroines. To throw us for a loop, these English women fought back (the fight picture is brilliant, that's all that can be said about it). Sadly, two versus ten isn't exactly fair (and they didn't have Inigo Montoya, Fezick or the Man in Black) so the two ladies are captured.
The villain is called Abdul the Heavy and he is so, as the illustration will attest to. Also, yes, there are two fat topless women. There is also a leopard, and many other more fun and fascinating things to see. Maybe it's because I'm a girl, but I don't that was ever a big deal to me. Look for the villain with a band-aid. That's a fun game. Anyway, Abdul has twenty two wives, and wants to make Edwina wife twenty three and Matilda a cook. This is the next bit, and one of my favorite parts of the book:
"But Edwina was not to be bullied-she had courage and true British grit. Despite being small she stood very tall (full four foot six and a bit) and cried, 'Don't suppose that this sweet English rose would marry a monster like you. I'd rather be dead!' And Matilda then said, 'I'm declining the cooking job too.'" Abdul has a temper tantrum and looks them in a tower. Also, maybe being 5'4" isn't too bad. It could be worse.
Luckily, Sir Cedric and Hubert are on the case and find their footprints, which lead them to a castle, then they see the tower. Someone has to scale the wall and no one really wants to. It's dangerous (he also uses the words 'braggart' and 'anon,' so that was a good lesson in vocab).
Hubert volunteers, climbs the wall, Edwina realizes that my-my-gosh-I've-liked-him-the-whole-time-and-WOW-he-looks-good-in-armor,o they all get down, but it's time for the FINAL SHOWDOWN! They were being excited t loudly, and Abdul heard them. Good job guys. Cedric decides that it's his turn to be awesome and in one page makes up for his inactivity in the rest of the poem. He stomps on Abdul's toe. This makes Abdul cry and "his men were distraught, for really he ought to have acted with daring and dash. So in sad disarray they lead him away, defeated by Cedric's panache" (another vocab word!)
They make it to Jerusalem, turns out Abdul is just a violent bully, Hubert is knighted (by the King, no less!) and gets the girl. Again, we have beautiful illustrations, beautiful framing of the illustrations...in some ways it looks illuminated, like medieval texts. I will leave you with a parting quote, the last lines of the book:
"And thus we leave Cedric triumphant
his womenfolk saved from their plight,
With Abdul brought low by a pain in his toe-
a lesson to all those who fight"
I always took that to mean that bullying and fighting just because you stronger is a bad thing. Again, the poetry is great; I shared some of my favorite bits here, and the artwork is truly fabulous. I don't know if there might be some hidden anti-feminist undertones here, but I never saw them. It seems to me to be both about being yourself, even if you are different (like Hubert) and that bullies are often easier to beat than we expect. But those are just my thoughts. Regardless, if you can track down a copy, it is totally worth it. Highly, highly recommended.
OK, well, I'm not sure how to do this right, but this story is the property of Roy Gerrard and was published by Farrar Straus Giroux. And just to be OCD about copyrights and stuff,this was copyrighted and published in 1986. Written and illustrated by Roy Gerrard, first published in Britain in 1986 by Victor Gollancz, first American edition in 1986, printed in Hong Kong.
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