A perky story about a king, ``short and round...[and] not very brave,'' who doesn't realize that the monsters who keep frightening him are his own shadow. He summons his tall soldiers, who dutifully guard the spots where the apparitions have troubled him; then little Peter points out that there is nothing there, and is rewarded with a fine soldier's uniform. Slight, but the humor is delightfully childlike; Knight (Eloise, 1955) illustrates with gleeful panache, providing music-hall comedy soldiers, a whimsically caricatured monarch with a confection of a palace ornamented with multitudes of toads, and a comical cat that comes along to cower or applaud at each new development. Good fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
