The Twin Princes
Kindergarten-Grade 2—Arnold characterizes the good and bad twin princes and their like-minded horses in this featherbrained tale in which Old King Chanticleer decides that his successor will be determined by a horse race and a riddle. Verbal puns—"You crossed the road to help me" and "Last one back is a rotten egg"—gain significance when the cast is made up of players complete with waddles and beaks. Listeners are encouraged to solve the riddle and prompted with visual clues and verbal urging: "Last chance…." Arnold's stylized art with bold outlines, colored-pencil curlicues, and watercolor washes is most recognizable for the expressive googly eyes—something that might be duplicated with golf balls in 3-D. The book is fun, but the nuances might be lost on a young audience.—Janet S. Thompson, Chicago Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an alternateHardcoveredition.