The Tiny King

This striking picturebook tells an engaging fairy tale, and like many fairy tales it illuminates what is truly important in life. The tiny king has a big palace and many big guards to protect him. Everything is vast and that is the problem for such a small person. What use is it having a large horse if it throws you off? Or a huge table groaning with food that is too much for one tiny person to eat?  There is a solution. All loneliness and sadness is banished when the tiny king falls in love with a Big Princess. Soon children are born to share the big castle and its big contents and, most importantly, they show the king the joys of family life. A spare written text is combined with art work which is made arresting by a bold black line round intensely coloured geometric shapes.  I particularly like the use of a restricted palate on some double spreads – black, white and turquoise for the giant bath tub scene and black, gold and brown for the king’s gigantic bed. This book beguiles with its interesting illustrations and promises to be a splendid introduction to the fairy tale genre for the under eights.