the+youngest+templar

The book, __The Youngest Templar__, by Michael Spradlin, is about a young orphan named Tristen. Tristen has been living in saint albans abbey scince he was abbandoned there by a group of unidentified knights, when he was a baby. for sixteen years, he had lived and worked at saint albans, never leaving. one day, a few knights arrived at saint albans, for food and water. their leader, sir thomas, liked tristan, and decided to make him his sqire. this was a tough decision for tristen, but eventually he accepted. he continiewed on to the nearby port city of Dover, where he met the king for the first time. after a day or two, he boarded a templar ship, going to the city of Acre, which was currently controlled by the Saladin, and his army of Saracens. Tristen was greatly moved after witnessing the bloodthirsty war between the Crusaders and the Saracens, but the city of acre was succesfully overrun by the crusaders. this defeat did not go well with the Saladin, and as expected, he began a siege against the city of acre. the crusaders lasted a long time under siege, for they had prepared by stalking up on food and water, but at one point, they couldnt hold the city. during the evacuation, sir thomas had given tristen the holy grail, with orders to bring it to britan safely. along his journy, tristan faces many challenges in bringing the grail back, which he will never forget.

The most interesting thing i learned from reading this book was that by the time of the third crusade, i which this book takes place, they had already ivented crossbows. another thing i did not know, was that the king would fight in a war, as well as the squires and pages. after reading The Youngest Templar, i was inspired to learn much more about the holy grail, and what made the challace so irrisistable for men. the most climatic event in the book for me was the siege of acre, and when tristen was presented with the challace. i would definately recommend this action packed book to a friend, because of its vivid image, fantastic story, and characters made so clear, you can almost picture them in front of you! overall, this was a great book, and i will enjoy reading the upcoming templar books.

by Jonathan