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9781842700839

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Michael Foreman conjures art to enchant.

King Lion, skeletal and clad in the thinnest armour, is hungry. His subjects, a motley collection of animals clothed in dungarees, are starving. The land is parched and nothing will grow so King Lion must look further afield to save his people. He must go on a mission with the local grocer, otherwise known as the Minister for Food, to visit a rich neighbour and ask for help. When they arrive, exhausted and hungry, a mountain of sponge cakes and pork pies looms into view. It appears that food is plentiful here and they hope that kindness and charity will prevail. Alas, they are confronted by the mean and terrible Fat King, who sits squashed into a throne, surrounded by Christmas puddings and luscious treats. When he denounces them as villains, they make a run for it and the obesity of the pursuing army allows them to escape. As the Fat King's army wallows in the earth, trapped by their own greed, the starving animals bombard them and birds fly overhead with seeds to pelt them. As the victorious King Lion looks around him at the defeated Fat King he sees that the land has been dug up by the tracks of the vehicles allowing the strewn seeds to grow. This wonderful moral fable by Michael Foreman is powerful and enchanting. In the tradition of all the best fairy tales, good conquers evil, the weaker survive and the baddies learn from their mistakes. The illustrations and text work well together, in particular the grotesque descriptions of the mountains of food. What most enchants about the book, however, lies within the final pages. As the Lion and his Minister of Food cycle off into the middle of a beautiful rainbow, the Fat King burps and asks for the recipe for Peace. Wonderful. Ages 4-6 (Kirkus UK)

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Michael Foreman OBE is one of the most talented and popular creators of children's books today. He has won the Kate Greenaway Medal two times and has been the UK nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award twice. His highly acclaimed books are published all over the world. He is married and has three sons. He divides his time between St Ives in Cornwall and London.

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