The White Stag, by Kate Seredy

I read The White Stag when I was in 4th grade. I remember the edition I had, and where I was sitting in the classroom when I read it. But my ultimate takeaway from the book was, I now realize, seriously lacking. I remembered it vaguely as a hunting story.

In reality, it is an epic tale of the journey of the Huns and the Magyars from Asia to the Hungarian countryside. With some distance (there have been a few weeks between the reading and the writing of this post) I think the story is a good one, if you like epic-style stories. There are prophesies, a little magic (not too much), multi-generational journeys, struggles... it's all there. It's a little like Exodus, with the Magyars and Huns instead of the Hebrews (and different enemies, of course). But it's told in such a style that the reading required a lot of effort for me. Instead of feeling grand and prophetic, it mostly just felt laborious.

That said, the illustrations, by the author herself, are gorgeous. I actually got a couple of comments on them as I read on the train! And while I found the writing of the story itself really hard to get into, I did really appreciate Kate Seredy's introduction. She talks about the difference between a story and the facts that fill books of the 20th century, and how valuable the stories are even without hard facts. If I didn't appreciate the storytelling, I did love the idea behind the story!
I did a little online poking and found that some people suggest this as a companion to The Trumpeter of Krakow - I can see the appeal, since this book is from the perspective of the conquerors, and Trumpeter is the story of a member of the conquered in a similar geography. But unlike Trumpeter, I would seriously hesitate before recommending this one to an elementary-aged kid - they should be REALLY into the sort of story before they'll get much out of it. 
I'm pretty impressed with my 9-year-old self for getting all the way through it. Even if I did miss the point entirely at the time.