Books, movies, or other media about knights for my four-year-old?

March 20, 2015 7:06 PM

My kiddo is super into pretending to be "a guard." His best friend pretends to be Queen Elsa, basically all the time, so they've decided that he's a guard who also has ice powers. His pretend guard self more accurately resembles a knight, and today when he was slaying dragons with a stick-sword, I thought, "This kid would enjoy learning about knights." But everything I know about is for older kids. What's out there for a four-year-old who loves stories and FACTS and doesn't like scary things?

Just for more nuance:

His favorite TV shows are The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That; My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic; and Dinosaur Train. We've tried watching The Gruffalo, and it's too scary. Frozen is actually borderline -- the snowman is a bit too much -- and a lot of episodes of MLP:FIM are complete non-starters.

As far as books, he loves the Magic Treehouse books, but doesn't understand all of what happens. We also read the Magic Schoolbus books over and over (and over and over) again. Previous attempts to read non-story based nonfiction books have not gone very far.

posted by linettasky to Media & Arts (21 answers total)

There's a children's nonfiction series called "You Wouldn't Want to Be" that was still in its fledgling years when I was a kid. I remember them being very entertaining. The series has grown quite a bit...there are several now (Knights, Gladiators...) that might strike your kid's interest.

I recall the pictures being funny and a bit gross, but you might want to do a google image search to gauge the scary factor.
posted by phunniemee at 7:14 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

And if he's ready for fiction and has the patience for chapter books at some point, Half Magic is a lot of fun.
posted by phunniemee at 7:15 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

You should consider Mike The Knight, it's a TV show aimed at just his age. It kind of blows that his sister is not a knight but a wizard, the gender roles are a bit traditional, but I think he would like it.
posted by smoke at 7:26 PM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

Just coming in to recommend Mike the Knight too. My son LOVED it at that age. I have only seen a few episodes; he would catch it at daycare on special occasions, but he talked and talked and talked and pretended, pretended, pretended about "Mike the Knife" for a good long time.
posted by goggie at 7:32 PM on March 20, 2015

The Knight and the Dragon is 4-year-old approved (by my 4-year-old) and contains no actual fighting.

He might enjoy David Macaulay's Castle: How it Works for the larger context of knighthood. I haven't read that one but my kiddo loves the other books in that series (Toilet: How it Works in particular.)
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 7:47 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

I highly recommend the book Castle by David Macaulay. It's lovely, with beautifully detailed illustrations. There's a simpler version called Castle: How It Works which might be more suitable for a 4 year old, but it's worth getting the more advanced version if only as a treat for oneself. Here's a PBS educational cartoon from 1983 based on the book.

You may or may not like The Big Knights, an old BBC cartoon that never stops being awesome. The only cons are that it may induce yelling (Brian Blessed is one of the voices) and it's a little lacking in positive female role models. And the older animation style is a little grainy compared to modern digital work like Frozen. But still awesome: short, simple, funny pieces that are all over YouTube.

On preview: Beaten to Castle! I lose at siege warfare.
posted by Pallas Athena at 7:55 PM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'm not sure if 4 might be a bit young for it, but Jane and the Dragon is a lovely book about an aspiring knight. There is obviously a dragon, which could be scary. But (spoiler alert) Jane and the dragon wind up making friends, if that would help.
posted by snorkmaiden at 7:55 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Jane and the Dragon is also a nice animated television show, on over-the air Qubo television stations.

Also, here's an instructional musical Youtube video of a knight in a tournament.
posted by eye of newt at 8:51 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

There are a bunch of fun medieval coloring books put out by Dover! The kids also really like this one. Many illustrations of knights and ladies.
posted by Wavelet at 9:22 PM on March 20, 2015

Do you have medieval/reenactments in your area? My kid has been going since she was a baby, basically, and adores the whole shebang. The re-enactors are generally super nice to kids (I have a great series of photos where my two year old daughter challenged a viking to a fight so he taught her to throw a punch) and they get to handle real weapons, and eat cool food, and all sorts of things. The one near us does a kid's day, and toddler tournaments, then a bigger day with more people and stuff and jousting and so on.
posted by geek anachronism at 9:25 PM on March 20, 2015

I wonder if he might get super into Disney's versions of The Sword and the Stone and Robin Hood.

Would How to Train Your Dragon be too scary? I haven't seen the sequel or the TV series, but the original film was very cute and offhand I don't remember anything that would've been too scary for little kids.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 10:55 PM on March 20, 2015

Do you have medieval/reenactments in your area?

The research term you need for this is "The Society for Creative Anachronism", or "SCA". They have regular meetups and outsiders are emphatically welcome -- especially kids.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:50 PM on March 20, 2015

I see you're in Oregon. Another possibility is Renaissance Faires, and some quick googling turns up one in Hillsboro, one in Shrewsbury, and one in Silverton.

And here's the local SCA branch.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:58 PM on March 20, 2015

Knight: A Noble Guide for Young Squires is a colorful, interesting book about many knightly things. It's very good. It has pop-ups and flips, too, on some pages -- there's a lance to pull out, and a visor to move up and down. The reader is meant to be a squire, who learns as he goes through the book how to be a knight.
posted by Francolin at 1:53 AM on March 21, 2015

You should read him The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame. It's a sweet little story about a boy who discovers a gentle dragon in the hills by his house, and St. George, knight and dragon-slayer, makes an appearance, but nobody gets hurt (dragon or St. George). You also should check out The Sword in the Stone Disney movie, because it's about two boys (one of whom will be King Arthur) learning to be knights; they have Merlin as their tutor, so there's also a lot of magic.
posted by colfax at 2:55 AM on March 21, 2015

From the other angle, our household is a big fan of The Worst Princess.

We have the book, but from that site I see they've been busy!
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 3:00 AM on March 21, 2015

Maybe look at things published in the UK? Knights have always been more of a thing for kids here, probably because children visit mediaeval castles all the time. My brother used to love the Usborne books about knights, which are mostly for quite little children, and on googling I see they still do them.
posted by Acheman at 3:19 AM on March 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

The Totally Awesome Epic Quest of the Brave Boy Knight - this is a comic book about a little boy who's playing knight

A Year in a Castle - nonfiction detailed pictures

(Also, relatedly, there are a few Duplo sets with a knights theme, and this Lego Juniors Knight's Castle set is nice intermediate between Duplo and the big-kid Legos.)
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:07 PM on March 21, 2015

(Yes, relatedly, seconding LobsterMitten, at the age of 5 I had a toy castle with moat/drawbridge and knights. It was lots of fun to play with.)
posted by gudrun at 12:30 PM on March 21, 2015

You've probably already read the Magic Treehouse Knight at Dawn (since it's #2 in the series), but they also have a Knights and Castles nonfiction book and the familiar format & illustrations may keep it interesting enough for short reads or flipping through the pictures.

The Dragon & the Knight is fun, particularly if your child knows some of the fairy tales mentioned (Cinderella, Rapunzel, Three Little Pigs, etc). Also, gorgeous pop-ups, and fun twist at the end. Non-violent, too.

And how about Good Night, Good Knight? Marketed for beginning readers, but definitely fun as a read-to.

Is he into Franklin at all? There's: Franklin and the Green Knight: The Movie.

Also, don't be afraid to ask your local children's librarian for some suggestions. They're definitely used to finding books & movies for a gentler crowd.
posted by carrioncomfort at 1:17 PM on March 21, 2015

I made my kids knight costumes for Halloween which they loved, and of course they had wooden swords. We went to a Renaissance Faire in costume too, and if you are near NYC take him to the Cloisters and the Metropolitan Museum's Medieval armor section, which even has horses in full armor and every sort of knightly thing. My kids never tired of it.
posted by mermayd at 2:40 PM on March 21, 2015