Escape to Ponti
In the late Middle Ages in northern Italy, fourteen-year-old Bec must fend for himself without any family. Animals take to him, and he works as a stable hand for a brutal local ruler, Malaspina. The story opens as Malaspina orders his blacksmith to scorch Bec with a hot branding iron and thereby forever signify that Bec is enslaved to Malaspina. Bec evades the iron and sets out for the fictional city of Ponti, ruled by an adversary of Malaspina. Malaspina and his henchmen give chase and offer a reward for Bec’s capture. Soon Bec teams up with another lad, Tien Nu, a superb martial artist and son of a recently deceased circus acrobat.
The two boys experience a lifetime of adventures packed into a period of about a week. They discover an empty old village, a convent run by an abbess who helps them, perilous caves and tunnels, a trickily calm but then wild river, and walls they must cling to or scale. They run into a giant wild boar, a pack of ravaging dogs, nasty feral cats, even a prowling lion. The two boys encounter robbers, innkeepers who want Malaspina’s reward, and a caravan of pilgrims also on their way to Ponti and beyond. The pilgrims are escorted by a mysterious old knight with his own backstory.
Well-done and informative illustrations break up the 63 fast-paced short chapters. An author’s note explains that the modern dialogue was intended to keep the characters sounding “fresh and lively.” The back cover says the book is for ages 11+. Readers of all ages looking for nonstop action in medieval times will enjoy this journey to Ponti.
