Picture Book Review: Mr. King's Castle by Geneviève Côté

Age Range: 3 - 7 years

Series: Mr. King

Hardcover: 32 pages

Publisher: Kids Can Press (August 1, 2013)

Genre: Picture book

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!)

My Rating: 4 of 5 stars

About the Book:

Mr. King wants to build himself a BIG castle. So he uses the closest available material to make the blocks he needs -- the land around his house that just happens to be home to his forest friends. When Mr. King's friends make him see what he's done, he realizes he's made a BIG mistake. Can he be king of his castle and a good friend, too? Young readers will delight in this second adventure of the shortsighted but well-meaning Mr. King.

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About the Author/Illustrator:

Geneviève Côté has illustrated a number of children’s books, including The Lady of Shalott, by Tennyson, La petite rapporteuse de mots, by Danielle Simard, or her own What Elephant? (Kids Can Press, 2006) and With you always, Little Monday (Harcourt, 2007).

She enjoys meeting young readers and authors-in–the-making in schools, has taught Creativity classes at College Salette, in Montreal (2007), and is currently registered with the program Artists in Schools.

Her editorial art has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, l’Actualité and other such publications. She graduated from Concordia University (Montreal, Que) in 1987, and was president of Quebec’s Association des Illustrateurs in 1993-1995.

She has won several honours over the years, including the Elisabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Award in 2005 and the General Governor’s Award for Illustration in 2007.
 
She lives in Montreal, Quebec.

Website

My Thoughts:

I just adore these illustrations. I love the use of white space and the simple, geometric shapes the artist used to make up her pictures. Seriously cute!

The story is about Mr. King who cuts up the hill he lives on in order to build a big castle. Once the castle is finished, he realizes that he no longer has a view and that he ticked off all his friends. So he decides to put everything back.

I like the moral of this story; that you can't look out only for your own pleasure without some major consequences. I like the way Mr. King realizes his mistake and decides to make things right again, even at the expense of having a big castle to live in.  This is a good book for children, to help them see that their actions affect more people than just themselves and that they might not always like the outcome of their choices.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

FOUR STARS