Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-Having a "most inquisitive mind," the King of Quizzical Island tells his loyal subjects he is going to sail to the edge of the world to see what he can find. Despite their concern for his safety, he is determined to go and builds a ship with wood from a Tea-Bag Tree, rigging made from a spider web, and uses a bumblebee for a rudder. In rhyming text, Snell tells of the king's strange and marvelous adventures in a Jigsaw Land, where everything lay in pieces, in Vertical Land, where everything stands on end, and his watery trials with Hurricane Harriet and the Sea of Dreadful Dreams. One day, he finds himself at his own back door, proving, he tells his cheering followers, that the Earth is, indeed, round. When a doubting Owl suggests that the King might just have been sailing in circles, the monarch, ever upbeat, orders up a 10-foot-wide, diamond-studded spade-in order to dig a tunnel to the other side of the world. That, however, the author tells readers in a surprise ending, "is another story." McKee's lively black-and-white line drawings (only the King is depicted in color) match the mood of this fanciful tale. It's best read aloud where children can participate in elaborating on the King's adventures-or devising new ones for this most curious ruler.-Barbara Elleman, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
It seems that the only one with an inquiring mind on Quizzical Island is the King. In spite of all the doom-and-gloom predictions of his advisors, he is determined to sail to the edge of the world just to see what he can find. It's all about curiosity and determination to seek answers to large questions. The tale is told in verse, employing simple rhymes in four-line stanzas, but Snell also delights the reader with some lovely, sophisticated words and phrases. The king sails on his "singular ship" to a "higgledy-piggeldy shore," and has adventures galore in which he must use ingenuity to solve dilemmas and find his way home, ready to tackle yet another "perilous plan." In McKee's clever, intricate pen-and-ink illustrations, only the king is depicted in watercolorsas it should be, for he is indeed unique. Originally published in England in 1978, it now makes its most welcome debut in the United States. Marvelous fun. (Picture book. 5-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
