A review by hsquared
The King and the Sea by Heinz Janisch

4.0

A proud but thoughtful king is bested by a variety of natural elements in this German import. The king, a creation of crayon and collage, converses with each figure, sometimes asking questions and other times asserting his own kingliness. “Don’t you know I’m the king?” he asks a bee, who promptly replies “And I’m the queen,” and then stings king’s nose. Sometimes the king shows a Zen-like acceptance, like listening to the majesty of the waves of the sea, or laying down in the warm sun with a cat. The king’s humanity comes out on top once, when he shows the night that he can do both dark and light by holding a candle. Erlbruch’s droll mixed-media illustrations provide a witty counterpart to Janisch’s text. Readers will get a chuckle out of a red-faced king clearly losing a power struggle with a sullen, long-eared dog. Children may not always understand the nuances, but they will appreciate the mighty and powerful humbled by the everyday and ordinary. The picture book can easily be read in one setting, or can be broken up into much shorter readings (each “story” is only one short page), making it suitable for both reading aloud and some independent reading.