A review by mat_tobin
The Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Sell
5.0
Gathering together a team of ten writers and illustrators, Chad Sell has created here a collaboration that is as tender and warm as it is humorous and fun.
Set within a fictitious neighbourhood, each short story features the introduction of a family (child-focused) on the block and how they transform, through cardboard and imagination, into heroes (and villains) to form a large, friendly group. Our story starts with the Sorceress, a young boy who loves dressing up in flowing gowns and wreaking destruction all the way through to a lovely collaborative story that features all the children from the block. Although each story features a new writer and is illustrated by Sell, the storyline is seamless and full of children from a huge range of backgrounds and ethnicities - and it is this which is the perfect bind that ties all the narratives together.
I can't rate this book enough. Having read it alone, I am now sharing it with my 6&7-year-old boys and they're loving it for lots of different reasons. No one is ostracised here or segregated and it was a refreshing sign to have the staple, stereotypical street bully (a broad-shouldered white boy) be lovingly accepted into the fold by the others.
Set within a fictitious neighbourhood, each short story features the introduction of a family (child-focused) on the block and how they transform, through cardboard and imagination, into heroes (and villains) to form a large, friendly group. Our story starts with the Sorceress, a young boy who loves dressing up in flowing gowns and wreaking destruction all the way through to a lovely collaborative story that features all the children from the block. Although each story features a new writer and is illustrated by Sell, the storyline is seamless and full of children from a huge range of backgrounds and ethnicities - and it is this which is the perfect bind that ties all the narratives together.
I can't rate this book enough. Having read it alone, I am now sharing it with my 6&7-year-old boys and they're loving it for lots of different reasons. No one is ostracised here or segregated and it was a refreshing sign to have the staple, stereotypical street bully (a broad-shouldered white boy) be lovingly accepted into the fold by the others.