I was looking forward to reading this book. I really wanted to like it. But, alas, I can not say that I did.

First of all, Robin Hood is arrogant, rude, and utterly unlikeable. He insults people he just met, picks a fight, and then acts like he's the one who's been insulted. He is very quick to threaten others with violence, even when all they've done is tell him to leave them alone. He extorts from people he just met, and somehow he's the "good guy." The narrator and other characters keep telling us how good, noble, and gentle he is, yet his actions do not support any of that. Supposedly he robs from the rich to give to the poor, but we don't actually see much of the giving to the poor part.

The stories were also very boring and repetitive. Robin insults someone, they fight, now they're friends, and the new person joins the band of merry men. Over and over and over again. He enters an archery contest. Someone shoots the middle of the target, and Robin shoots an arrow through that arrow. The Sheriff must have prosopagnosia (face blindness), because every time Robin changes clothes the Sheriff can't recognize him. The same stories were repeated over and over again, and it got old fast.

Howard Pyle also knows absolutely nothing about combat. Sword fights did not go on for hours and hours. A duel lasted minutes, perhaps even less than a minute.

Finally, it must be said: this is not written in old English. This isn't a criticism of the book, but of many of the reviewers. Pyle has his characters use some old-fashioned expressions, but none of it is Old English. Old English is actually the ancestor of Modern English, and not just English that sounds old. Very few people can actually read Old English, because it is so different from Modern English as to be an entirely different language. Even Shakespeare is Early Modern English.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Anyway, my 5th graders like it, so I guess it's a decent book for children.