Eddie's Kingdom
PreSchool-Grade 3–In a departure from the Henry books that started withHenry Hikes to Fitchburg(Houghton, 2000), a boy creates peace in his apartment building. The residents are fighting with one another and yelling at Eddie. Armed with pencil and paper, he visits each apartment and draws its occupant's picture. Every person has a complaint that Eddie resolves, such as giving earphones to the man who plays his music too loud. The boy's final picture echoes the prophet Isaiah's vision of a peaceful world in which the wolf shall dwell with the lamb. The text and pictures resound with the lesson that a little child shall lead them. Johnson's unique colored-pencil and paint illustrations, influenced by Cubism, glow because of the palette of reds and golds combined with pastels. The large pictures and the steady pace of the text make this a successful selection for storytimes. Johnson is a master at making deep themes accessible to children, which makes this book a good discussion starter for groups or individual sharing.–Debbie Stewart Hoskins, Grand Rapids Public Library, MICopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.