Parsifal is originally a 25,000 line epic poem from a German author. In this book we get a good prose translation of the story told by that poem. If you want to get a good understanding of the story before jumping into the actual text, this book is a really good place to start.

Perhaps the intention was to be spot on with the "facts" (names, spouses, kingdoms, begetting and begatting, the like) but this legend is in this form for young'uns and i am fairly sure any child i know would ask for a different story after about 4 pages.

i recently came into possession of a marble bust of a medieval knight. At the bottom, scratched in so you have to really look for it is: "PARSIFAL". So now, of course, we need to know the legend. It actually is an engaging plot, but this version was shot, slapped on the back of the pickup, disemboweled and hung to dry til it reached its desiccated current form, sort of legend jerky. And the author unfortunately gave it a Christian spin as she used as her basis the first major Christianized version (Wolfram circa 1300).

i'll be looking for a different, juicier version hopefully based on the original pre-Christian story. Any suggestions?

While I am a keen admirer of Paterson's heartfelt "Bridge to Terabithia," I was a bit disappointed in this almost by the numbers "summa" of Wolfram Von Eschenbach's "Parzival." I've read enough Arthurian novels and poems to be able to breeze past a few plot points, family trees, and characters without getting too muddled. After all, the Arthurian legend is a vast tapestry in its own right. My disappointment lies not so much in the brevity of the book, but in how dense it is for the audience towards which it is aimed.

Some colleges actually have this book on a syllabus, perhaps as a quick means in getting familiar with the Parzival legend while exposing students to juvenile fiction. While the book does succeed to a certain degree in summarizing vast chunks of Wolfram's work while excising other adventures such as those concerning Gawain, it fails in one very important aspect. It does not breathe life or garner interest for young and not-so-young readers who may find themselves bored with so many names thrown at them in so few pages. There were times where my kindle slipped out of my hand in reading the confusing backdrop of Parzival's family history.

Still, the book does succeed in another aspect in that it has pointed me right back to my original Parzival by Wolfram in Mustard's translation. Something, I simply must tackle in this lifetime to complete my Arthurian endeavors. In short, this not a bad book and I've read much worse in the onslaught of contemporary Arthurian revamping that now plague the reader. As I said in the beginning, I know Paterson to be capable of delivering better as she did with her Terabithia, and expected a bit more soul into a story that has all the potential to rend the heart and hold the reader—just think of what could have been done with a young Parzival leaving his heartbroken mother in search of becoming the very thing she protected him against.

Would recommend this more as a refresher on the Parzival legend for older readers, and would recommend younger readers to seek out some of the young audience classics that collect a similar
or simpler Parzival (or rather Perceval) story along with the rest of the Arthurian cycle, such as those volumes by Roger Lancelyn Green (still in print) or better yet, Barbara Leonie Picard (harder to find, but well worth it).

Parzival The Quest of the Grail Knight is a really good book.Like the other books I have read, I think it is a really good to me and everyone else.This book is a really good because it starts of a boy in childhood named parzival learning how to be a knight in adulthood.Parzival from childhood to adulthood had to learn the skills of being a knight by other knights of King Arthur's court and then Parzival became a knight of King Arthur and Queen Quinevere and to the Knights like Sir Lancelot, Sir Gawain, Sir Galahad, Sir Tristan,and the other knights of the Round Table. And maybe a lot of people would like to read this book like I have read and it was a really good book and I hope someday you will get a chance to read this book too. It has a lot of adventures and action and a lot of heart pounding adventures of the knights of the Round Table.

In Waldorf circles this is a legendary tale. "Parzival is a boy raised in the wildeness, ignorant of chivalry and of the great Arthur. But in Wolfram's tale, he is so much more than that. He is the innocent fool who through trial, loss of faith, suffering, repentance and al last, redemption, becomes the Grail Knight he was destined to be."

I am not sure I "got this one".

I don't think it is possible for this book to be any worse...a torturous read.

nice short story... still interested in reading the original.

I liked the book a lot. I have always loved and been deeply engrossed with tales of the medieval times, particularly the tales of King Arthur, so this was a very enjoyable read for me.

This is a relatively traditional retelling of the Parzival legend. My children and I quite enjoyed it.

C8:AGES 8+: No sex, nudity nor profanity, though it may have language considered socially offensive employed within the context of the story, and violence that is infrequent, discreet and of low intensity.

E:Easy: 3rd grade Vocabulary

Method: Physical Book

Location: Chautaugua-Cattaraugus Library System

This was an awful adaptation of a knight's tale. Can't imagine ever having kids read this. It could have been more exciting. Just not. And it was confusing. Maybe the author needed to focus on a smaller portion of this knight's life and not tried to cram so much in. Just too much in this. Too many names. Not enough fleshing out of the characters. And the time jumps were HUGE. One minute he's a boy, the next he's getting married.

Just say no!!

Quick and fun read. I love fairy tales.