Whether or not this actually happened is hard to say, but the story itself provides the opening of a story that manages to have a lot that is worthwhile to say about the search for knowledge about the burden of being a protector of that which is lusted after by so many in the world. This book is a historical novel, and that is all the more impressive when you realize that this book is based on an actual historical legend in Poland, namely that there was in fact a trumpeter in Krakow who died while sounding the alarm for his city in the face of the Mongol invasion and that for centuries afterwards those who followed him in his position stopped playing the call at the same note where he died. It’s fun to read, and the brisk pacing and suspense keep the pages turning – a perfect children’s adventure story. Nor is this a story that could be transplanted to another time, as lesser historical tales can be alchemy plays a great role in this book, as part of the drama stems from Kreutz, the alchemist, and his attempts to find the secret of transmuting base metals to gold. Krakow is also made central to the story, as Kelly lovingly details its various buildings and streets.

This is a fine historical adventure, written in a clear but highly literate style, full of drama and suspense. The family is shadowed and accosted several times by a mysterious rogue, who turns out to be a dreaded Ukranian warlord who originally drove them from their home and is out to steal a priceless treasure which, to Joseph’s surprise, his father is guarding for the king. In the tower there, he plays on the hour the Heynal, a theme that is traditionally broken off in mid-note out of respect for a brave Polish lad who was killed by an arrow while playing it as Tartars advanced. Joseph becomes a watchman in the Church of Our Lady Mary. The family befriends a wise scholar and goes to live in the house of an alchemist and his daughter.

Joseph Charnetski, a fifteen-year-old, travels with his family to Krakow after their home and fields in the Ukraine were destroyed. The 1929 Newbery winner, this novel is set in Poland, 1461.

The trumpeter of krakow