Review by Michele Bolay

Before there was Katniss Everdeen, there were the female archers of Robin Hood’s band of outlaws…

Robin McKinley is possibly best known for her Newbery Honor book, The Blue Sword, and for her fairy tale retellings (Beauty, A Knot In the Grain, Spindle’s End), but her lesser-known reworking of the Robin Hood legend, The Outlaws of Sherwood, is a gem.

Most versions of the Robin Hood legend portray the outlaws as adults. In McKinley’s version, with the exception of Little John and a few others, Robin and the outlaws are young, in their late teens to early twenties. This raises the stakes for both the characters and the reader.
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