Kids
Book Review: King & King by Linda de Haan & Stern Nijland
This is a fairy tale not quite like any fairy tale you’ve ever read before. It starts off in the usual way. There is a queen. There is a crown prince (that means he’ll be king one day). And there is a crown kitty (I guess that means he’ll be king of the kitties).
Ruling a kingdom is a lot of work, so one day the queen decides she wants to retire. But she can’t just leave the kingdom without a ruler! That means the crown prince has to marry and become king. The queen brings in princesses from all over the world, even though the prince says, “I’ve never cared much for princesses.”
All of the princesses are nice enough. One has a lovely singing voice. One performs a special magic act. One is very funny. But it isn’t exactly love at first sight with any of them.
If the prince doesn’t really like any of the princesses, might there be someone else out there for him? What about Prince Lee, who comes to visit with his sister, Princess Madeleine? What will the queen think about that?
After you’ve read through the book once, you’ll have to go through it again just to catch the many, many things that are happening on every page. You won’t mind, though—the pictures are wild and crazy!
King & King is for ages 4 through 8, and is published by Tricycle Press. It is available for purchase at Amazon.com.
Author
Assistant Kids section editor Hannah Crawford graduated from Carleton College with a major in English and a concentration in Latin American Studies. Apart from reading, her great love is theater, which is one of the many reasons she is very excited to have recently moved to Minneapolis.
