Moving in

Market day

Tournament

Feasting

Attack!

The siege continues

Making repairs

Christmas
 THIS PAGE
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j Millbrook Press / Minneapolis
First American edition published in 2009 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

Copyright © 2007 by Orpheus Books Ltd.

All U.S. rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form
or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of
Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

Millbrook Press
A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.
241 First Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA

Website address: www.lernerbooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Coombs, Rachel.
A year in a castle / by Rachel Coombs. — 1st American ed..
p. cm. -- (Time goes by)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978–1–58013–550–4 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)
1. Castles—Juvenile literature. 2. Civilization, Medieval—Juvenile literature. I. Title.
GT3550.C66 2009
940.1—dc22 2007048918

Manufactured in the United States of America

1 2 3 4 5 6 — BP — 14 13 12 11 10 09

978-0-7613-4677-7
 Table of Contents
Introduction 4
January: Moving in 6
March: Market day 8
April: Tournament 10
May: Feasting 12
June: Attack! 14
August: The siege continues 16
October: Making repairs 18
December: Christmas 20
Glossary 22
Learn More about Castles 23
A Closer Look 24
Index 24
 THIS IS THE STORY of
a year in a castle. All the pictures have the same
view. But each one shows a different time of year.
Lots of things happen during this year. Can
you spot them all?

Some pictures have parts of the walls taken away.

This helps you see inside the castle.

4
 t i o n
d uc
ro
Int

You can follow all the action at the castle as

the months pass. The calendar on each
right-hand page tells you what month it is.

A s you read, look for people that appear every month.

For example, keep an eye on the lord and lady of
the castle. They are very busy. And look out for
a prisoner. He’s always up to something! Can you
spot the thief? Think about what stories these people
might tell about life in the castle.

5
Can you
find . . .
A new castle has just been built.
The lord and his family are moving
in. All over the castle, people unpack.
The inner bailey is a courtyard inside
the castle walls. A cart has collapsed
a guard? there. It was carrying too many grain
sacks. A water-filled moat, or ditch,
goes around the castle. Guards laugh
as a man swims in it!

6
 ar y
a n u
J

Moving in

Market day

Tournament

Feasting

Attack!

The siege continues

Making repairs

Christmas
Can you
find . . .
It’s market day at the castle. Local
people come to buy food. Musicians,
a stilt walker, and a sword swallower
perform for the people. Inside the
castle, the lord greets his cousin who
a priest?
has come to visit. The cousin wants
his daughter to marry the lord’s son.
He has brought expensive gifts. In the
chapel, a priest tries to teach a class
of children. But they aren’t paying
a well? much attention!

8
 rc h
Ma

Moving in

Market day

Tournament

Feasting

Attack!

The siege continues

Making repairs

Christmas
Can you
find . . .
The lord’s son is getting married.
So the lord holds a contest called a
tournament. He has invited knights
from across the land. The knights
gather at the back of the castle.
a hawk?
They carry lances and try to knock one
another off their horses. Some knights
get injured. In the inner bailey, knights
shoot arrows at targets. In the kitchen,
the servants decorate a cake.
a knight?

10
 i l
Apr

Moving in

Market day

Tournament

Feasting

Attack!

The siege continues

Making repairs

Christmas
Can you
find . . .
A huge feast is taking place in the
largest room in the castle. The room is
called the Great Hall. The lord and lady
sit at the head of the table. Jesters and
acrobats entertain the guests. The kitchen
a jester?
is busy. The cooks prepare all the food.
The servants rush the food across the
inner bailey to serve the guests. Upstairs,
the maids try on the lady’s clothes.
the lord and lady?

a horse
and carriage?

12
 y
Ma

Moving in

Market day

Tournament

Feasting

Attack!

The siege continues

Making repairs

Christmas
Can you
find . . .
A n enemy lord attacks the castle!
Guards raise the drawbridge. Some
help put out fires. They shoot arrows
at the enemy. Inside the walls, the
servants train to defend the castle.
a catapult? In the Great Hall, guards tell the lord
what is happening. A few enemy
soldiers have sneaked into the kitchen.
The servants fight them.

a bow and arrow?

a battering ram?

a fainting maid?

14
 e
Jun

Moving in

Market day

Tournament

Feasting

Attack!

The siege continues

Making repairs

Christmas
Can you
find . . . The attack continues. It is a siege—
an attack that lasts many months. The
guards have put wooden planks around
the walls. The planks help protect the
castle. But enemy soldiers fire burning
an injured man?
arrows. The soldiers try to climb over
the walls using a tall wooden tower.
Inside, the castle is running out of
food. Many guards are injured.
a flaming arrow?
The Great Hall has been
turned into a hospital.

a rescue?

a belfry?

16
 u s t
A ug

Moving in

Market day

Tournament

Feasting

Attack!

The siege continues

Making repairs

Christmas
Can you
find . . .
The siege is over at last. The
guards have finally defeated the
enemy! The lord rewards the
bravest fighters by making them
builders?
knights. But he thinks others
might be stealing from him. A
trial takes place. Those found
guilty are put in prison. Workers
begin to repair the castle.

a man fixing
the roof?

a maid sweeping?

a knighting
ceremony?

18
 e r
O tc ob

Moving in

Market day

Tournament

Feasting

Attack!

The siege continues

Making repairs

Christmas
Can you
find . . .
The lord holds a Christmas feast.
He invites some of the local farmers.
A few are very greedy! Upstairs, the
some geese?
lady catches the thief. Outside, actors
perform a Christmas play. Some
children (and some guards!) build
snowmen. One guard notices the
prisoner has escaped! The first year
children skating?
in the castle has been busy. Will
next year be just as busy?

guards
warming up?

a snowman?

a play?

20
 b er
e m
Dec

Moving in

Market day

Tournament

Feasting

Attack!

The siege continues

Making repairs

Christmas
 Glossary
acrobats: people who perform gymnastic tricks

battering ram: a heavy wooden beam, sometimes protected by

a hut on wheels. It is rammed against a wall or gate to punch through it.

belfry: a tower

catapult: a weapon used for firing rocks over castle walls

drawbridge: a bridge that can be raised or lowered

Great Hall: the largest room in a castle

inner bailey: a courtyard inside the castle walls

jesters: people hired to make others laugh. Jesters often wear colorful
clothing and hats with bells on them.

knights: warriors from long ago. Knights worked for important families
and protected them.

moat: a deep ditch around a castle that is filled with water

siege: an attack that lasts many months

tournament: a contest for knights

trial: examining evidence in a court of law to decide if a person is guilty

of a crime
22
Learn More about Castles
Books
Carlson, Laurie M. Days of Knights and Damsels: An Activity Guide.
Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1998.
Hooper, Meredith. Stephen Biesty’s Castles. New York: Enchanted Lion
Books, 2004.
Langley, Andrew. Castle at War: The Story of a Siege. New York: DK Pub., 1998.
MacDonald, Fiona. How to Be a Medieval Knight. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2005.
Murrell, Deborah Jane, The Best Book of Knights and Castles. Boston: Kingfisher, 2005.
Steer, Dugald. Knight: A Noble Guide for Young Squires. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2006.

Websites
Castle Learning Center
http://www.castles-of-britain.com/castle6.htm
Find out more about building castles, living in castles, and knights. A parent or teacher can help
read and explain the information on this site.

Castles for Kids

http://www.castles.org/Kids_Section/Castle_Story/index.htm
This website gives names for all the parts of a castle and also tells about many of the people who
worked at castles.

Destroy the Castle

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/trebuchet/destroy.html
Play this game using a weapon called a trebuchet to destroy a castle. The website also includes
more winformation about sieges.

23
 A Closer Look
This book has a lot to find. Did you see people who showed up again and
again? Think about what these people did and saw during the year. If
these people kept journals, what would they write? A journal is a book
with blank pages where people write down their thoughts. Have you ever
kept a journal? What did you write about?

Try making a journal for one of the characters in this book.

You will need a pencil and a piece of paper. Choose your
character. Give your character a name. Write the name of
the month at the top of the page. Underneath, write about
the character’s life during that month. Pretend you are the
character. What do you do all day long? Is your life hard or easy? Why? What have
you noticed about the other people at the castle? Have you seen anything surprising?
What? What do you hope to do next month?

Don’t worry if you don’t know how to spell every word. You can ask a parent or teacher
for help if you need to. And be creative!

Index
attack on the castle, 14–17 moving in, 6–7
burning arrows, 16–17 prisoner escape, 20–21
Christmas, 20–21 tournament, 10–11
feast, 12–13, 20–21 trial, 18–19
fixing castle, 18–19 unpacking, 6–7
knights, 10–11, 18–19 visiting cousin, 8–9
market day, 8–9

24
Lower the drawbridge! Would you like to know
what life was like in a castle long ago? Then come spend the next
twelve months in this castle. Check out eight action-packed scenes
for a bird’s-eye view of the life and work of lords, ladies, knights,
maids, and more. See the castle on market day and during an
attack by an enemy lord. Watch knights compete in a tournament.
Keep your eye on the calendar too. By spending a whole year in a
castle, you can watch events unfold as the seasons change.

Read all the books in the Time Goes By series!

A Day at a Zoo A Year at a Farm
A Day at an Airport A Year in a Castle
A Day in a City A Year in the World of Dinosaurs
A Year at a Construction Site A Year on a Pirate Ship