DK Reads: Battle at the Castle

Life inside a medieval castle, seen from the position of a young squire, gives Battle at the Castle its shape. Rupert Matthews tells the story through letters and scene-setting narrative, moving from tournament preparation to the work of defending a fortress, and the historical detail arrives inside the action rather than in separate fact boxes. The reading level is pitched for children building independence, with sentence length and vocabulary controlled but the subject matter left genuinely interesting. It belongs to the DK Reads series, which grades its titles by reading stage. Worth noting: • Medieval castle life presented as narrative rather than as a fact list • Letters used as a device to carry the historical information • Language graded for readers moving towards independent chapter books • Part of the DK Reads levelled reading series A good fit for newly independent readers, children drawn to knights and history, and teachers choosing levelled texts, published by DK and stocked by Boipoka.