The techniques that make Elizabeth Fenwick one of the best adult mystery writers have been transferred to her first book for children: a straightforward story with short sentences made up of just the right words and ordinary things seen from a slightly different angle. Here we have a young prince at home and nominally in charge when the adult court goes off junketeering with the first spring thaw. His uncle, the court chamberlain and a temperamental pig fancier, reluctantly allows the prince to use the banquet hall for a luncheon that will cheer the castle's lonely children, who arrive full of a previous lunch because they had not been informed of the prospect of food and came fearing punishment. An ancient jester pulls n Elsa Maxwell and saves a bewildered host. Satisfying, simple and amusing.