The Hero and the Crown
by Robin McKinley
Greenwillow Books, New York, 1984. 246 pages.
1985 Newbery Medal Winner
Starred Review
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2010: Wonderful Rereads
Naturally, taking a class on the Newbery Medal was the perfect excuse to reread my all-time favorite Newbery Medal winner, The Hero and the Crown. I’ve already posted a review of my favorite Newbery Honor Book, The Blue Sword, which, no coincidence, is also by Robin McKinley.
I was a college student when The Hero and the Crown was written, and I’m not sure when I first discovered it, but now it’s one of those books I simply have to revisit every few years. Reading it again this time, I happened to have a persistent headache, but, my goodness, this book makes me feel ready to go out and slay my own dragons.
Technically, The Hero and the Crown is a prequel to The Blue Sword, since it was written second but the events in the story take place before those of The Blue Sword. Nowadays, they would call it a “Companion Novel,” because really the order doesn’t matter. I happened to read The Hero and the Crown first myself, and that worked fine. All I know is this: It doesn’t matter in which order you read them, just be sure that you read them!
If you like fantasy novels even the slightest bit, with these two books Robin McKinley established herself as the queen of the adventure heroine fantasy genre.
Aerin has always known she’s a misfit of a princess. Her mother was a witchwoman who enchanted the king, and Aerin has never shown any sign of manifesting the Gift for magic that all proper royals have.
Alas, the kingdom of Damar is having plenty of trouble, which is only to be expected since the loss of the Hero’s Crown.
Then her cousin Galanna goads Aerin into eating a Surka leaf — a plant that should manifest her Gift, if she had any. Aerin, instead, gets horribly ill. While recovering and trying to stay out of everyone’s way, she befriends her father’s old wounded warhorse, Talat. In her reading, she learns about an old potion that protects against dragonfire. Through persistent experiments, she perfects the formula for the ointment.
Now Aerin the witchwoman’s daughter is ready to make herself useful. With old broken-down Talat she begins fighting off the nasty vermin dragons that were out plaguing the villages.
But then, as her father is leaving to settle an uprising, a messenger comes bearing dread news.
“The Black Dragon has come…. Maur, who has not been seen for generations, the last of the great dragons, great as a mountain. Maur has awakened.”
This is the first tremendous challenge Aerin attempts and conquers, armed with her persistence and sheer determination.
The Hero and the Crown is one of the great girl-power novels of all time, along with magic and dragons and saving a kingdom and changing from a misfit to a true heroine. Fantasy lovers, like me, will come back to it again and again.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/hero_and_the_crown.html
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Today I finished rereading The Hero and the Crown in audiobook form. I was a little horrified to find myself more critical. Robin McKinley jumps around in perspective. And the timeline, especially the first part, is very murky, with years going by and the story continually jumping back in time to explain something. And in several places, Aerin just moves on “instinct” or following the magic – and admittedly has some victories because of sheer luck. Oh, and I don’t like the narrator’s motherly tone, making the characters sound like children.
But all that said – Robin McKinley still has the ability to completely pull me into another world. I was still enthralled as long as the book was playing. I’d rather think about the vividness of the world she built than my nitpicking. I think I’ve been reading on too many award committees! Though this book won the Newbery Medal – so the magic of the tale wins out. And I want to shake myself and look more closely at the things I enjoy. This book is still one of them.