Roz reveals her backstory to the cows, who are supportive of the robot’s determination to return to the island and to her adopted son, the goose Brightbill. Roz, a robot who learned to adapt to life among wild creatures in her first outing, seeks to return to the island she calls home.īrown’s sequel to The Wild Robot (2016) continues an intriguing premise: What would happen to a robot after challenges in an unexpected environment cause it to evolve in unusual ways? As this book opens, Roz is delivered to a farm where she helps a widower with two young children run a dairy operation that has been in his family for generations. Sword-swinging ghosts will haunt readers of this droll, harrowing and historically grounded ghost story. Black-and-white illustrations add to the Tudor atmosphere and drama. It's told with self-effacing humor from the perspective of an awkward boy who emerges as honorable and brave as the ghost knight and the contemporary girl he befriends.

Historic details about the real Hartgill, Longspee and Stourton are deftly woven into a ripping good story. But Longspee harbors his own dark secret, which Jon pledges to resolve. Longspee’s ghost proves a valorous champion, helping Jon eradicate Stourton and his vendetta. Ella’s grandmother warns Jon he’s being haunted by the ghost of Lord Stourton, a villain hanged in 1556 for the murders of Jon’s Hartgill ancestors. Ella suggests Jon evoke the ghost of William Longspee, a famous knight buried in Salisbury Cathedral.

She takes him to her grandmother, an expert on local ghosts. When his mother sends him off to Salisbury Cathedral School, Jon arrives “shrouded in thick mists of homesickness.” Pursued by ghost riders only he can see and who call him “Hartgill,” his mother’s maiden name, a terrified Jon confides in fearless classmate Ella. “Banished” to boarding school in contemporary Salisbury, England, 11-year-old Jon finds himself targeted by phantom riders determined to punish him for something that happened centuries before.

Ghost knight by cornelia funke