The King and the Sea

Originally published in German, by an award-winning Austrian author and the German winner of the 2006 Hans Andersen Medal for illustration, this, as you might expect, is a highly accomplished and thought provoking picture book. In twenty-one double page spreads the King of the title enters into poetic conversation, one by one, with a variety of interlocutors. Some are inanimate objects, like a trumpet and a fishing net; some are phenomena and creatures of the natural world, for instance the sea, night, a dog, a tree, and a squirrel; and others are more nebulous, like a ghost and sleep. The result is an extended eccentric and quasi-philosophical meditation, reminiscent in some ways of The Little Prince, as the King gradually explores the world and his place in it. Funny and enigmatic, it’s a book in which childlike simplicity (wax crayon plays a large role in the naïve figure of the King), is used to puncture hubris. It can be read with wonder, enjoyment and profit by adults as well as children.