King Mouse
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
King Mouse finds his authority in question when his subjects find crowns of their own. A gentle and humorous modern fable about imaginative play and kindness in the tradition of classics like Little Bear and Frog and Toad.
A sweet, thoughtful tale of friendship, sharing and play, King Mouse begins when a mouse comes upon a tiny crown in the grass. The mouse puts the crown on his head, and when a bear subsequently comes upon him and asks if he's king, the mouse responds "Yes."
This diminutive monarch settles into his new role very comfortably . . . until a snake comes upon a crown and claims she is queen. The mouse is not amused, especially when one by one the other animals find crowns and claim they are royalty too. But when the bear can't find a crown, King Mouse make a most surprising decision.
This inspired collaboration between an award-winning author and debut picture book illustrator Dena Seiferling is quietly profound in its simplicity and has the feeling of a modern classic.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Newcomer Seiferling creates striking, silvery graphite spreads to illustrate this story by Fagan (What Are You Doing, Benny?), a fable about what happens when status turns heads. After a sleek mouse dons a tiny crown he finds in the grass, a bear asks if he is a king. "Yes," the mouse says. "I am." "Hail to the king," the bear promptly replies. In the story's richest sequence, the bear and other animals offer the mouse seeds, then entertain him with a performance ("They rehearsed over and over"). The mouse, for his part, accepts this treatment as his due. But when the other animals find more crowns, all dropped in the grass by a child, they announce that they're royals, too, parading around in a circle of folly: "Long live me!" Only the bear finds no crown, and he wanders away, despondent. The mouse notices, offers the bear a kindly gift, and the two watch the sunset together, pale color entering the spreads as the sun sets and their friendship grows. Fagan develops with dry wit the story of the crowns and the way they skew the animals' judgment, ending the tale on a wistful, affectionate note. Ages 3 7.
