Catherine Jinks spins a colorful tale loaded with action, down-and-dirty details of medieval life, and a healthy helping of sarcasm sure to appeal to teen readers - especially boys. Down on his luck and kicked in the pants one too many times, sixteen-year-old Pagan Kidrouk arrives on the doorstep of the Templar Knights in medieval Jerusalem, looking for work as a squire. He’s expecting only some protection from the seedier aspects of life on the street and a few square meals. Instead, Pagan finds himself hard at work for Lord Roland de Bram - an exciting life of polishing Lord Roland’s armor, laundering his garments, and even training to fight by his side. But as the Infidel Saladin leads his army to Jerusalem, it becomes more and more difficult for Pagan and Lord Roland to discern what action to take or whom to trust. Neither Saladin’s army nor the Christian Crusaders offer easy answers. Is a bloody battle for control of the Holy City inevitable?

Catherine Jinks’s follow-up to PAGAN'S CRUSADE is another tale with special appeal for boys—filled with action, featuring a witty young narrator, and loaded with down-and-dirty details of medieval life. The year is 1188, and Jerusalem is in the hands of the Infidel. Upstanding Crusaders and their squires—like Lord Roland Roucy de Bram and Pagan Kidrouk—are returning to Europe, hoping to rally more knights to their cause. The sardonic young Pagan expects Lord Roland’s family to be the picture of fortitude and good manners, but he is in for a rude awakening. Brutish and unfeeling, the de Bram clan cares nothing for the Crusades, or indeed for anything outside their neighborhood in France. Meanwhile, local unrest is brewing. Church authorities are duking it out with the de Brams over a group of "heretics" living nearby. And now Pagan and Roland, sworn to defend Christianity, are left to decide for themselves whom to stand by-and whom to trust.

"Jinks again displays an amazing knack for blending utterly convincing period detail, earthy wisecracking, and profound respect for courtly and spiritual ideals."—BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS Having renounced the sword, Pagan and Lord Roland arrive at the Abbey of St. Martin to devote their lives to God. But no sooner are they outfitted in their novices' habits than Pagan suspects that something mysterious is going someone is stealing alms, and Pagan is determined to find out who. The truth may come at a price, however—one that could force Pagan to reconsider his pious role and his dedication to Roland. Now available in paperback, the third adventure of the four-book Pagan Chronicles is a medieval thriller that leads the reader through a web of mystery and intrigue in the most unlikely of places.

Pagan's final adventure finds our sarcastic hero a bit older and wiser as he leads his young scribe out of the world of books to brave the real-life dangers of a papal crusade. Impressed by the bookish Isidore, Pagan Kidrouk—now Archdeacon of Carcassonne—hires the boy as his scribe. Eager to flee a cloistered existence, naive Isidore quickly discovers that the real world isn't as the poets and philosophers claim. The year is 1209, and papal forces from the north are driving their bloody crusade against the Cathar heretics to Carcassonne. With the battle lines inching ever closer, the world of Father Pagan, Lord Roland, and Roland's mysterious brother grows more real to Isidore—and more terrifying—by the day. The last of four books in an acclaimed series, PAGAN'S SCRIBE casts the worldly, wise-cracking Pagan in an unexpected role as friend and mentor to a young soul in need.

Exotic and exciting, this unflinching coming-of-age tale featuring a headstrong heroine weaves a vivid tapestry of life in the Middle Ages. Early thirteenth-century Languedoc is a place of valor, violence, and persecution. At age sixteen, Babylonne has survived six bloody sieges. She's tough, resourceful, and—now that her strict aunt and abusive grandmother intend to marry her off to a senile old man—desperate. Disguised as a boy, Babylonne embarks on an action-packed adventure that amounts to a trust the mysterious Catholic priest—a sworn enemy to her Cathar faith—who says he's a friend of her dead father, Pagan. Or pursue a fairy-tale version of her future, one in which she'll fight and likely die in a vicious war with the French. Though Babylonne never knew her irreverent father, fans of Catherine Jinks' novels about Pagan Kidrouk will be sure to see the resemblance in his feisty daughter.