This book is hilarious. It is also crude, crude and crude. The rest of the series is like that. Unless you happen to like crude (of which it possesses an abundance) I recommend you pass on this one. ( )

I read this series when I was in about 8th grade, and I forgot everything about it, but every once in a while I'll remember a detail or a turn of phrase and remember how much I liked it. I decided to read the first book again, and it's even better now that I'm an adult and I know more about the historical background. (Minor history peeve: the narrative mentions corn, sunflowers, and hot peppers, none of which existed in 12th-century Jerusalem.)

Pagan's Crusade would for sure be torn to shreds by YA Book Twitter if it had been published today, which by itself is probably a good reason to check it out. It relies on the reader to know right from wrong. It's a book with a moral core, but it doesn't MORALIZE, and its perspective on the Crusades is limited by Pagan's very limited POV. Pagan is primarily out to save his own skin, but his "odd couple" placement with Roland enriches them both.

Good book! And an interesting male POV in YA, which isn't super common. I'll be giving the rest of the series another look now. ( )

I loved this little book. It was funny, sarcastic and very informative.

The book was talking about a boy called Pagan, who, unlike many people of the time, was able to read and write. He was placed under the supervision of a Lord who was a Templar.

This book brought to life, simply and easily, the life of The Knights Templar. I have a great fondness for The Knights Templar and this book allowed me to get an even better understanding of what The Knights Templar encountered and experienced.

It is well worth the read. ( )

A young squire learns the value of friendship and loyalty while serving a Knight Templar in 12th-Century Jerusalem.
Meh. The character of Pagan is promising, but the plot was difficult to find and the constant use of the present tense for the narrative was a little irritating. ( )

Pagan Kidrouk turns to the Templar Knights for work as a squire. He's had some trouble and needs their protection. He goes to work for Lord Roland, right as Saladin brings his army into Jerusalem.

This is a medieval character you haven't seen before, clever, witty, sarcastic, and all his clever, witty, sarcastic thoughts brought to the page if not to the ears of his much less clever and less witty listeners. Roland is quite the opposite, salt-of-the-earth, serious, and, sadly, illiterate. The two, nevertheless, form a friendship that works for both of them.

A story full of all the intriguing details of medieval life that only a scholar like author Catherine Jinks could provide. ( )