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3.17 AVERAGE
3.17 AVERAGE
Originally published on my blog Nine Pages.
This book was intense! I liked the cover, and it looked wintery, so I put it up on display this month. I did not expect the story inside. While the king and queen are away, mysterious, uniformed foreigners attack and overcome the castle, locking the young prince in his red pajamas in the dungeon with his dog. Once I’d started, I worried a bit about my young audience, but the one who stayed to pay attention was probably 7, and I comforted myself thinking that it was just the prologue to a Disney film, like Frozen, where the parents go off on a boat, and the boat is caught in a storm, and the parents never come back. The prince escapes but is hunted by the invaders, his face posted on wanted posters. My audience enjoyed trying to spot the prince on each page and in each crowd. His subjects help him evade capture, ultimately all of them dressing in bright red too to confuse the invaders. Unfortunately he is still found and his people must come rescue him again. The people, perhaps united by their love of the prince and their group effort earlier, chase away the invaders. It really didn’t have as satisfying an ending as I’d hoped for. I’m not sure what I wanted though. The prince is safe, and the invaders are chased off—peaceably. While the ruling family is white, the kingdom is racially diverse. Cole’s illustrations are the reason to read this one. They incorporate creative angles and bright colors and contrasts.
This book was intense! I liked the cover, and it looked wintery, so I put it up on display this month. I did not expect the story inside. While the king and queen are away, mysterious, uniformed foreigners attack and overcome the castle, locking the young prince in his red pajamas in the dungeon with his dog. Once I’d started, I worried a bit about my young audience, but the one who stayed to pay attention was probably 7, and I comforted myself thinking that it was just the prologue to a Disney film, like Frozen, where the parents go off on a boat, and the boat is caught in a storm, and the parents never come back. The prince escapes but is hunted by the invaders, his face posted on wanted posters. My audience enjoyed trying to spot the prince on each page and in each crowd. His subjects help him evade capture, ultimately all of them dressing in bright red too to confuse the invaders. Unfortunately he is still found and his people must come rescue him again. The people, perhaps united by their love of the prince and their group effort earlier, chase away the invaders. It really didn’t have as satisfying an ending as I’d hoped for. I’m not sure what I wanted though. The prince is safe, and the invaders are chased off—peaceably. While the ruling family is white, the kingdom is racially diverse. Cole’s illustrations are the reason to read this one. They incorporate creative angles and bright colors and contrasts.
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Read to my son. The story is entirely lacking context and everything happens so fast and doesn’t make sense. The illustrations are beautiful though and deserve better writing.
A bit underwhelming, but the illustrations were beautiful.
Gorgeous illustrations. Poor storyline-especially the ending.
After reading this, I couldn't help but wonder whether the words were needed at all. As a wordless picturebook, the story of the Red Prince could provoke plenty of discussion around the pictures and their interpretation. Whatever the case, it is the illustrations that really do much of the telling here and they are excellent. Cole paces the whole story well, drawing you in which full double-page bleeds for a sense of scope and the dramatic and using perspective and size to influence our feelings around the prince as well as colour.
Catalogued this at work today. Decent story, gorgeous illustrations.
After the King and Queen depart their kingdom for a time, the young prince is placed in charge. Evildoers from outside the region rush to capture the prince and hold him for ransom. When he escapes, the prince seeks help from his subjects to ensure that he is safe. Their unique and ingenious plan shows everyone just who's boss. Neo liked this story, though had to wonder how everyone just happened to have clean red clothes for all to wear!
After reading this, I couldn't help but wonder whether the words were needed at all. As a wordless picturebook, the story of the Red Prince could provoke plenty of discussion around the pictures and their interpretation. Whatever the case, it is the illustrations that really do much of the telling here and they are excellent. Cole paces the whole story well, drawing you in which full double-page bleeds for a sense of scope and the dramatic and using perspective and size to influence our feelings around the prince as well as colour.
The illustrations are just gorgeous in this book. I stopped on every page to admire what was going on. I really couldn't get behind the story, though. There wasn't any context, it just felt like someone describing a generic fairy tale: the prince was captured while the king and queen were gone, but with the help of his people, managed to get back home. That's basically it, who knows where the king and queen went or why, who came to capture the city and the prince and why it was so dang easy, if the people could have easily risen up against their captors like they did at the end, why didn't they do it first to not let themselves be captured, or anytime in the 4 days that the prince was imprisoned? ANYWAY the pictures are great.