It’s the second to last day of their visit. They’ve been beading since they got up, making lizards. All the lizards have names: Glittery, Twittery, Inferno (the red one), Shiny, and Tiny. They had little dishes of the strawberry ice-cream I was making for tonight’s dessert and asked if they could lick their bowls. (Of course.) When I went to get some towels to put in the wash, a tree frog jumped out of the one I’d used for my swim early this morning. We all watched it on the back deck, admiring its bright green back. Yesterday, walking along the esplanade in Sechelt after Grandad and Cristen swam in the ocean, Henry confessed that one of his favourite things to eat was rose petals. There were rugosas planted along the path and he found some bright pink petals, from a bright pink “Hansa”, and ate them with great enjoyment. Tonight, he wants rose-petal syrup on his ice-cream. During a break in the beading, he asked for a chapter of Black Ships Before Troy and when Odysseus and Diomedes lopped off the head of Dolon after extracting information about the Thracian camp and its beautiful horses, he didn’t even wince. (It was his dad’s book and he wants to take it home with him on Saturday.)
...Theresa Kishkan 
Is that book by Rosemary Sutcliff? I have loved her writing for decades, even though most of it has been for young readers. I finally acquired a hardcover copy of Sword at Sunset, an adult retelling of the Arthurian legend that I first read in the 1970s. I have read it possibly three times already and plan to do so again this winter.
Yes, it certainly is! Our children loved her retellings of the Iliad and Odyssey and the little ones love them now. John’s appreciation for her books goes back to Eagle of the Ninth and the Capricorn Bracelet. They’re very good to read aloud — wonderful language, wonderful narrative timing.