Review by New York Times Review
At a time when everyone obsesses over boosting self-esteem, a book about too much ego should have its place. Van Dusen ("The Circus Ship") tells the humorous tale, with boisterous, eye-popping illustrations, of a tiny king with an oversize ego, hoist with his own petard. But it's Tessa, a put-upon wench who also happens to be a sorceress, who steals the story, and eventually the king's (also sizable) heart. She probably deserves better. THE BOY FROM THE DRAGON PALACE A Folktale From Japan. Retold by Margaret Read MacDonald. Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. 32 pp. Albert Whitman & Company. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 7) This cautionary Japanese folktale offers an evergreen lesson: Be careful what you wish for. In this case, Aladdin's genie is the son of the Dragon King, a boy with "the snottiest nose you ever did see!" As long as he is fed shrimp soup, he grants his keeper's every wish. Children, predictably, will enjoy the boy's snuffling of nose and slurping of soup. Parents will like the parable against greed. And despite the tale's ick factor, Yoshikawa's drawings are lovely and adorable. KING JACK AND THE DRAGON By Peter Bently. Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. 32 pp. Dial. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Oh, the glorious art of childhood fort building! At once contemporary and classic, this book will appeal to any child who believes in dragons, beasts and the swords that slay them. And, as affectionately described by Bently ("A Lark in the Ark") and Oxenbury ("We're Going on a Bear Hunt"), no E-Z Fort kit is required. Even the baby with a Binky is allowed to play. Eventually, the giants (parents) invade, bravery fades and the parental beasts are entirely welcome. THE ORPHAN A Cinderella Story From Greece. By Anthony L. Manna and Soula Mitakidou. Illustrated by Giselle Potter. 40 pp. Schwartz & Wade. $37.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) The most striking thing about this "Cinderella" is its palette of cool olive greens and Aegean blues, and - breathe easy, parents of brunettes - its dark-haired, brown-eyed heroine. The story also holds interesting departures. The fairy godmother is actually Cinderella 's mother, speaking from the grave: "Go, my child, go to good,/ With all my blessings, go!" she urges. "Your sorrow weighs upon my heart,/ Your pain, it wounds me so." The tale becomes one not just of maternal absence but of eternal motherly love. The slipper remains the same. HOW THE LEOPARD GOT HIS CLAWS By Chinua Achebe with John Iroaganachi. Illustrated by Mary Grandpré. 38 pp. Candlewick Press. $16.99. (Picture book/middle grade; ages 7 to 11) In this powerful illustrated fable for older picture book readers, Achebe, the celebrated Nigerian writer, offers a parable about how power corrupts. The story follows a vainglorious dog - Scar to the Leopard King - who thwarts the animal kingdom's interspecies peace and deposes its king. This is anticolonialist fiction for middle graders, with a touch of Orwell's "Animal Farm," and is as much a critique of those who blindly follow power as of those who wrongly assume it. There's a lesson to be learned, but no happy ending. THE FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM Edited by Noel Daniel. Translated by Matthew P. Price with Noel Daniel. Illustrated. 320 pp. Taschen. $39.99. (All ages) This gloriously illustrated collection, Taschen's first children's book, includes lesser-known tales like "Little Brother and Little Sister" and "The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs" along with the favorites. Best are the timeless illustrations, mostly European, gleaned from previously published work from the 1820s to the 1950s. The stories, if not all their characters, live happily ever after. PAMELA PAUL ONLINE A slide show of this week's illustrated books at nytimes.com/books.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [September 11, 2011]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
"Long ago, when people spoke/ with words like 'thou' and 'thee,' " a Napoleonic figure (in attitude and physical stature) named King Hugo ruled supreme. While his subjects think he's a joke, they have no choice but abjection: they bow low when he passes by and pretend to listen his "Speech of Adoration," a weekly hours-long "boring buzz/ of how mighty and magnificent/ King Hugo thought he was." Comeuppance takes the form of a comely, feisty peasant maid named Tessa, who, unbeknownst to the king, is also a sorceress. "Let's see if all your arrogance/ can fit inside your head," she says, and sure enough, "his head kept bloating,/ bulging bigger every day" with each narcissistic act, until he looks like a bobble head doll on steroids. A life lesson and true love tie up the loose ends, but not before readers are treated to a terrific melange of satire, slapstick, and caricature, all served up with expert comic timing. Van Dusen (The Circus Ship) may be puncturing the myth of infallible monarchy, but readers will have no trouble pledging obeisance to his comic majesty. Ages 3-6. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-3-King Hugo is a mini monarch (he's three foot three) who thinks very highly of himself. He makes his subjects bow to him as he extols his magnificence throughout the kingdom. One day his royal coach careens by a woman working along the road and sends her into a ditch. She just happens to be a sorceress and casts a spell on him. Each time he begins to brag, his head grows a tad bigger. When he topples from the top of the castle and rolls like a boulder into the valley, he once again meets the sorceress, who reveals her curse. To prove she is the creator of his misfortune, she allows all the haughty things he has said to explode from his head. Returning to his original appearance, he realizes what a fool he had been and humbly apologizes. "What happened next was kismet/yet truly unforeseen:/he became a better man,/and she became a queen!" This enchanting story in verse will appeal to readers who can laugh at the foolhardy king while enjoying his bizarre transformation. Children will revel at the fanciful illustrations and celebrate when the braggart receives his comeuppance. The gouache illustrations demand attention and are rich in comedic detail with a fairy-tale quality. This is a great group read-aloud that offers opportunity for reflection and discussion.-Diane Antezzo, Ridgefield Library, CT (c) Copyright 2011. 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 Horn Book Review
An entire village puts up with its megalomaniacal king. When he gets on the wrong side of a maiden (who's really a sorceress), she decides to teach him a lesson to suit his crime. Well-built rhymes sustain the plot to the fabulous finish. The gouache art is loud and busy, but then again, demure and refined this story isn't. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A cautionary tale loses track in this fable of an egomaniacal monarch.Here's how this story ends: The king and the sorceress fall in love and live happily ever after. And this is a surprise, because just a few pages earlier, the sorceress had put a curse on the king. His head inflated until it was 10 feet wide, so that he would learn to be less arrogant. Some picture books would conclude the story there, with King Hugo humble and chastened and vowing never again to say things like "Say, who's the most majestic king?" But a few pages from the end, the sorceress has a realization: "Could it be, deep down inside, / she kind of liked the king?" The author, it seems, is a die-hard romantic. Readers may be less forgiving, not only because the romance comes out of left field, but because the author tries to rhyme "and bent down on his knee" with "then spoke most humbly." The awkward verses make it difficult to put up with an insufferable main characterand vice versa. The pictures of King Hugo floating through the air, however, are hysterical; readers may wish the book had ended on that punch line. Even in the age of The Stinky Cheese Man, sometimes a tidy moral is best.Some fairy tales, it turns out, work better without the fairy-tale ending. (Picture book. 3-6)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
