I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
The King's Stilts
by
Dr. Seuss
fantasy, picture book in Hardcover edition that was published by Random House for Young Readers on October 12, 1939 and has 56 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Sneetches and Other Stories, Horton Hatches the Egg & Horton Hears a Who!, Green Eggs and Ham, The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories, The Lorax, Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!, Daisy-Head Mayzie, Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, Scrambled Eggs Super!, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories, You're Only Old Once!, My Many Colored Days, McElligot's Pool, If I Ran the Circus, Sleep Book, I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories, I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
A standalone story about spoilsports who hate anyone having any fun, and the shirkers who won’t work if they can’t have fun.
My Take
There always has to be one crab in the barrel. But I do have to wonder about the king’s observation skills when he doesn’t pick up on Eric not being around for days, and when he suddenly does show up, he ignores him. In spite of the trauma of his lost stilts.
The King’s Stilts irritated me. What kind of a king allows his lack of stilts to interfere with his job. The most important job in his kingdom?
Yes, I understand that Seuss is making a point, but he could have segued much better. Made the king’s depression more realistic in how he ignored his duties. And yes, what a contradiction, that I’m complaining about realism in a fantasy…*grin*…
The Story
The work of the day is keeping those Patrol Cats happy and fed so they can perform the most important work of the kingdom: keeping those Dike Trees safe and alive lest the ocean come roaring in and drown the kingdom.
The Characters
King Birtram is a hardworking ruler in the kingdom of Binn. Eric is a page boy. The unhappy Lord Droon holds the papers. The Chief-in-charge-of-Fish picks only the best.
Nizzards are birds who adore the taste of the Dike Trees, which hold back the ocean. The so-very important Patrol Cats chase the Nizzards away.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a deep royal blue background with all the text in a bold white font and a very Seussian crowned king, wearing a bright red robe trimmed in ermine and racing by on his bright red stilts.
The title revolves around the importance of The King’s Stilts.
