I have the great joy of being the Thursday morning storytime leader at Big Hill Books in Minneapolis. Thursday mornings at 10:30 finds me reading books, singing songs, counting books, playing with finger puppets, and teaching ASL signs to toddlers and their caregivers at this wonderful indie bookstore. It is consistently the highlight of my week.
During the school year, our storytime participants were quite young. The core group, in fact, were all born within about six weeks of each other and are now just 15 – 16 months old. We have some older kids, too — but seldom are they over three. Still small, still learning new things each day, including how to do storytime. It’s a sometimes raucous half hour.
Now that it’s summer, we have some school age kids coming, and I find that I need to select some picture books with more words, more humor, gorgeous art etc. They’ll sit politely for a couple of lift-the-flap books and one-word-per-page books, but then they need something for them. When the babies start wiggling and running and sharing snacks, I pull out the big-kid books.
Last week I read an old favorite saved from when I was reading to my own children. King Hugo’s Huge Ego, written and illustrated by Chris Van Dusen. We had an astute seven-year-old in our midst.
Long ago, when people spoke
with words like “thou” and “thee,”
there lived a king name Hugo
who was only three foot three.
And though this mini monarch
stood no higher than an elf,
his ego was enormous—
he thought highly of himself.
I looked at my wee audience — most much shorter than three foot three. The seven-year-old (a giant, by comparison!) smiled. The babies stood/sat … still … eyes wide.
It is not easy to write a good rhyming picture book — I’ve tried. This one is perfect. The story is propelled by the rollicking rhyme. You can’t possibly read it in a monotone.
Every Friday morning, King Hugo gives a talk called The Speech of Adoration. He requires the peasants in his realm to bow down to him. He blathers on and on about how mighty and magnificent he is. He is hilariously insufferable.
One day King Hugo climbed aboard
his coach of gleaming gold
to watch the peasants bow to him
as down the road he rolled.
And on that fateful day, the story takes a turn. King Hugo comes upon Tessa, a maid carrying a heavy load of hay. She is most unimpressed by his highness. When she refuses to step aside and bow down to King Hugo, she is bumped into the gutter. From this humiliating place, she casts a spell on the king as he drives off down the road.
The babies were still quite engaged. The seven-year-old inched forward on the carpet.
The spell makes it so that King Hugo’s head swells each time he compliments himself. Such as when he stands in front of his mirror.
“I do believe, dear Hugo,
You’re more handsome than last night.”
But when he put his crown back on,
it felt a little tight!
The babies reached up and touched their heads. The seven-year-old grinned.
The illustrations are fantastic — so delightfully absurd! King Hugo’s head grows and grows.
The more he talked, the more he grew,
till suddenly a squall
hit the king’s gigantic head
And pitched him off the wall!
And there he goes bouncing through his kingdom.
“Ball!” said one of the babies.
The seven-year-old was in hysterics.
Such a great way to kick off summer — this wild and crazy book. I would not dream of telling the ending — but I’ll tell you that one of the babies clapped. The seven-year-old laughed and hid his face in his hands. Find a kid — have a read! You will laugh, I promise.
What a delight to read your commentary on the children’s varying reactions to this story. Priceless.