bickie 's review for:

King Louie's Shoes by D.J. Steinberg

2.0

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This attractive book is a good introduction to King Louis XIV of France. The colorful, detailed drawings provide a lot to look at (including the top of the royal carpenter's bottom due to his sliding pants while he works). The illustrations also complement the text well, even changing orientation on three occasions to emphasize King Louis's height. Effort is made to have a variety of ethnic faces in the crowds, despite whether it is entirely historically accurate. The premise of the book is that although King Louis had great accomplishments, he felt it necessary to compensate for his short stature. This is introduced by explaining how he is BIG ("built the biggest palace," "grew the biggest army," "threw the biggest parties," "gave the biggest gifts"), but there was a "little problem" - that he was "a shrimp." Both times his stature is referred to, the king is called a "shrimp." This distracts from what is otherwise a fun book because it is name-calling and treats short stature as an obvious problem rather than in a more nuanced fashion. Disappointing.