The King Has Goat Ears by Katarina Jovanovic illustrated by Philippe Beha

from goodreads

4.5 stars

When I was young I had a cassette tape (that's right, a good ol' cassette tape with walkman) of Robert Munsch stories. There was one story that was not a Munsch story. I don't know the title or who the narrator was. I don't even remember all the words of the story. I remember one line, "Each blade of grass whispered to the other 'the King of Togo Togo has two horns'". Even my husband remembers that line, it must have been a popular tape. This book reminds me of that story. It allows me to remember and know how happy my childhood was.

Synopsis

Poor King Boyan has goat ears on his head. Because of that he never leaves his castle and getting a hair cut is quite difficult. When he needs a hair cut he summons a barber and then that barber is never seen again. There is now a shortage of barbers. Igor is an apprentice to the only barber left. He agrees to go cut the King's hair. When the King asks Igor how he looks Igor says he looks fine, and then is sent home. But Igor knows the kings secret and can't tell anyone, but needs to let it out, so he digs a hole and yells in his secret and covers it up. Will the secret stay safe?

My Thoughts

This is a cute story. The pictures are cool. They are made up of various textiles and that makes them really special.

I liked how this story shows that you can be happy no matter what you look like. Really it doesn't matter. All that matters is that you are happy and love yourself. It shows how when you stop worrying about things that are out of your control, self-confidence can build.

This book also showed how secrets can spread even when we think we are being careful. Words are powerful things. We need to be careful with them.

The adult in me thought a few things were strange. Like, Why didn't he keep one barber in the castle all the time and just use him? Why did he have to get a new barber each time, even though the other barbers were still in the castle? Wouldn't the people already know he had goat ears, assuming he had them since birth? My kids just accepted things as fact and didn't worry themselves about "the details". Me and my logical brain!

So one the whole I really enjoyed this book. My children really enjoyed this book. That there is a winning combination.