Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling is wasted on the young audience for which it was intended these days. I remember reading it as a teen and being totally confused, mainly because I didn't get half of the references - if that. I read it again last week, and I was pleased to recognize some of the poems this time.

I can now sing "We are the Little Folk, We", which I first heard as a song of rebellion in the SCA. Sung when a king did something the populace did not approve of, by an old knight in the back of the hall, and joined in, one voice at a time. And that king did not receive further service from his peers, neither the pelican the spirit of volunteerism, the knights to marshal and fight his wars, nor the laurels to craft his fine clothes or cook his fine feasts. Remember children, when you fight in the Grand Tournament to be king, you fight for the hearts and minds of the people, as surely as you fight for the honor of winning alone.

I read the story of Hadrian's Wall and now I have seen it and walked on Scottish soil, and studied why it was made and the change in Rome at that time - the story felt more real. Also, I understand more of King John and his Magna Carta, and the flow of gold in that time, so that story also resonates on such a deeper level. I have not seen anti-semitism with my own eyes in my time- but I have seen in the past in the Holocaust, and it's hard to understand it or see it as real, but through Puck, perhaps I see more of a glimmer.

But all this was lost on me in my childhood. And I do not think I could explain it to a child of 10 as pictured in the story. Woe our education in this country that such great works will fall by the wayside, neglected for tests and no real solid meat on the bones.  ¶ 9:37 AM