The swashbuckling adventures of Vinċilot

Author: Ellen Alpsten Illustrated: Andrea Hebrock Adapted to Maltese by Kit Azzopardi

Are you an aspiring Knight? Have you always dreamt of swashbuckling adventures? Are you all geared up to fight dark knights, dragons and bandits? Then Vinċilot is your man (well, young lad really).

Vinċilot u d-Dragun tan-Nar and Vinċilot u l-Kavallier l-Iswed take the reader straight to a journey in the medieval world. Tournaments! Jousting! Sword fighting! Castles! Pointy towers!

There are, of course, plenty of knights in shining armour, and the kingdom is run by a good king and his daughter Princess Pawla, who is an excellent ball player.

So who is Vinċilot and how does he fit into this kingdom? He is a brave little lad who desperately wants to become a knight. He is not sure he can make it, but is confident that whatever happens, his special trusted (and magical talking) sword called Ivimma would always be at his side.

The two books in this series take the reader on different adventures. In Vinċilot u d-Dragun tan-Nar the villagers fear the scary and dangerous Red Dragon up in the mountains. Vinċilot however discovers that it’s not the dragon which is causing the chaos but the nasty Dark Knight, Duke Xidwejjaq. None of the other Knights of the kingdom dare put up a fight against the evil Duke, and in the end it’s Vinċilot who saves the day. Vinċilot u l-Kavallier l-Iswed is set during a jousting tournament where all the knights are eager to win so they would get the chance to play ball with Princess Pawla. As the tournament starts, however, it turns out that one mysterious knight, kitted all in black, is defeating all the other knights and is about to win. Vinċilot definitely can’t stand by and watch, so he challenges the dark duke. The books, originally in German, are written by Ellen Alpsten and illustrated by Andrea Hebrock. They have been adapted to Maltese by author Kit Azzopardi. The zesty colours and jovial, tongue-incheek tone means that children will relate to them immediately. The Vinċilot series has no fixed age: children from eight years up will be able to read the book by themselves and parents can read it with younger children. Don’t worry, grown-ups will enjoy it too, as they are perfectly suitable for aspiring knights of all ages! Vinċilot u d-Dragun tan-Nar and Vinċilot u l-Kavallier l-Iswed are available from all leading bookshops or directly online from merlinpublishers.com