The King with the Dirty Feet
Book Details
The King with the Dirty Feet
Sally Pomme Clayton, illus. Rhiannon Sanders. Burley Gate: Otter-Barry Books, pb 978 1 9109 5923 7, 2018, £7.99, 36pp.
Picture book, fiction, 4+ years
There was a king in India who was trapped in his contradictory desires of not wanting to wash and not wanting to get dirty at the same time.
This beautifully illustrated picture book shows how practical solutions give us self-control and how important it is to place boundaries around oneself rather than the world while resolving personal tensions.
The use of onomatopoeic words such as ‘Zut’ and action words such as ‘cutting’ and ‘stitching’, alongside the King’s dramatic emotionality, render the book a perfect resource for a theatrical play that could be easily and vividly performed by children on stage. An array of very defined characters would capture every eye and mesmerize the viewer.
The book certainly deserves to be read, as well as performed.
Review by Benjamin West