Tiny Cedric

The castle looks something like an upside-down wedding cake, with several turrets shooting skyward from the top, lopsided layer.  A valuable message about isolation and community, delightfully delivered.

Readers' first look at King Cedric is a comic gem: though his curly red hair fills substantial horizontal space, the howling pink-skinned grump is almost swallowed up by the elaborate Regency sofa on which he sits. And it quickly becomes clear that the monarch is gigantically insecure about his "tiny" stature. He banishes anyone taller than him from the palace, then builds a brick wall to avoid seeing "someone big!" But the diminutive king neglects an important detail: his servants have also been banished, and it turns out that his only remaining subjects--all babies--are simply no help at all. When Cedric enlists one of them to be Royal Dresser, she "just kept undressing herself," writes Lloyd-Jones (Look! I Wrote a Book! ), as Watkins (Mabel: A Mermaid Fable) shows a brown-skinned tot gleefully running away in her birthday suit. Forced into a caretaking role, Cedric slowly softens; eventually, he welcomes his subjects back and happily spends the rest of his days playing with his charges, even when they grow taller than he is. The creators don't draw a line under their message of self-love and human connection--that work is capably done by the title's elegantly exaggerated mixed-media illustrations and the sight of a powerful leader squirming under the weight of his own foolishness. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown. Illustrator's agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary. (Feb.)

There are many age groups who will adore this story, adults among them, but for typical first-grade absurdity, Tiny Cedric wins. This is the tale of a tiny, tiny king, who banishes anyone taller than he is from the palace, and that's everyone. Only babies are left behind, and, as Cedric quickly learns, babies are always the boss. He tries to have a meeting, "But the baby presiding over meetings fell asleep in her porridge. The Royal Librarian kept eating the books. The Royal Scribe only knew scribbling. The Royal Dresser just kept undressing herself. And the Royal Taster ate everything. It wasn't satisfactory." The deadpan narration will have children shrieking as Cedric, despite fun house mirrors that make him appear taller than he is, discovers that ruling isn't all it's cracked up to be. With so many details to pore over on hilarious spreads of royal havoc, readers may not immediately notice that the tiny king becomes servant to the babies, and copes by ordering parents back to the building. They arrive, but it's too late. The king has taken to cuddling, and is too busy tending children to notice that they grow up and tower over him. VERDICT This original story will have readers cackling through diaper wars, milk and cookies, and the reformation of the grouchiest character since the Grinch. An essential purchase.—Kimberly Olson Fakih

"...positively brim[s] with humor." -The Wall Street Journal