The Scarecrow and His Servant

By Philip Pullman
Rating: 3 1/2 stars
Reviewed by Noelle

Lord Scarecrow is, actually, a scarecrow that old Mr. Pandolfo creates and puts in his field. The scarecrow gets stolen several times until the night it is struck by lightning and comes alive, like Frankenstein's monster. He meets Jack, an orphaned boy, who readily takes up the scarecrow's offer to take him on as a servant and to seek adventure. The scarecrow is a likeable soul, although quite simple minded in most ways, and as wide-eyed as a child in many instances. Jack is luckily a bright lad, and becomes quite devoted to extricating his master from the many scrapes he gets himself into. Their adventures are varied and amusing, from routing a band of brigands to becoming a prop in a play to fighting as a soldier in the battlefield. The scarecrow loses many of his bits and pieces along the way, but keeps his "inner conviction"--a piece of paper in the middle of his innards that says he actually owns a place called Spring Valley. Jack and the scarecrow join forces with the kingdom of birds when it becomes clear that Spring Valley is being taken over by an evil corporation. Can they fight the law and win? Overall, this is a light and humourous read. You can read deeper issues into it, like the evils of lawyers and corporations and the incompetence of armies and so on, but you don't need to. It can just be a fun adventure to ride along with. You'll have fun with this one. If you want to read something deep and wonderful, try Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.