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Rhee, Helena Ku

The Paper Kingdom

40 pp. | Random | February, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-0-525-64461-3 $17.99 | Library ISBN 978-0-525-64462-0 $20.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-525-64463-7
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Pascal Campion. Daniel usually stays home and sleeps when his parents go to work as night janitors for a corporation, but when one evening his babysitter can't come, he must go to work with them. They try to keep sleepy Daniel entertained by telling him that the office is a Paper Kingdom: the conference room is a "throne room"; the bosses are a king and queen who send paper to everyone in the kingdom and preside over the dragons, who are "small and friendly" but very messy. Daniel's parents hope he will someday become a king who will "tell the dragons to be nice and neat." The boy rapidly intuits the power imbalances and questions why some people make messes that others must clean. Campion's colorful, impressionistic illustrations, awash with warmth and light, show paper drifts, messy kitchens, and dragons hiding behind bathroom stalls. Subtle facial expressions convey the family members' closeness (and, via the sweat on Mom's brow, their hard work), while creative use of shadow and perspective captures the largeness of the space and the intimacy of imaginary play between parents and child. As his mom and dad busily clean their way through the office spaces, Daniel's wide-eyed, feet-planted observation invites readers to likewise contemplate the hierarchies and invisible labor of spaces they inhabit.
Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2020

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