It would be unfair to call this novel a "fantasy lite" because it is more brief than Duncan's previous works. The story does get to the point quickly, with one adventure rather than several, and so is much shorter.

Young readers who are ready to move on from the mass-marketed formula fantasy and horror novels by R. L. Stine and Chris Pike will find Sir Stalwart to be an enjoyable challenge, as the plot and characters are far more sophisticated than in the "Goosebumps" and "Fear Street" short novels. The vocabulary and grammar are not too demanding for upper elementary students, though.

The literary merit of the novel Sir Stalwart is as great as many of the thirty novels Duncan wrote previously. This story was not "dumbed down" simply because the author was hired to write, for the first time, a novel intended specifically for young...