THE LITTLE FLOWER KING
by Kveta Pacovská & illustrated by Kveta Pacovská & translated by Anthea Bell
The Czech author-illustrator of a wonderfully inventive counting book (One, Five, Many) brings the same imagination and brilliant colors to illustrations for an old-fashioned story a little king whose happy life planting tulips is incomplete until he quests for a princess (he finds her in a tulip blossom) and makes her his queen. The tale's a bit trite but told with engaging simplicity, and it serves as a vehicle for Pacovsk†'s splendid mix of vigorous, childlike drawing (of images like the flowers and the king himself) with brash, sophisticated colors and playful manipulation of size for dramatic effect (Ö la Oscar de Mejo). A powerful sense of design informs these collage-like compositions, thoroughly European in tone. Try this with very young children, who'll like the peek-a-boo cover cutouts and respond to the vibrant colors, bold forms, and simple story. (Picture book. 2-6)