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From The Sunday Times
January 21, 2007

Children's book of the week
THE SADDEST KING
by Chris Wormell
Age 2-5

This picturebook is good for the emotional health of young children.

It is a fairytale about a land where “people were always happy” — by royal decree. Misery is against the law. One day, a little boy, in the tradition of The Emperor’s New Clothes, breaks the rules and cries. Guards take him to the creepy-faced king, and the boy discovers that the fixed royal smile is a mask. Underneath, he and the king have an unhappiness in common. In the end the law is changed and everyone has a “really good cry”.

The book has a large cast of Breughelesque villagers in medieval costume, drawn with brown ink and autumnal watercolours, and is full of incident to explore. It also features an endearing dog. The tone is lively, cheerful and surprising, even though the book considers grief and how to deal with it, because it sanctions feelings that are appropriate to events. Children need to know that sadness is sometimes healthy, and that, while they may laugh in the short term, in the long term they will feel able to express their sorrows

(Cape £10.99). NJ

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