Publishers Weekly
John Alfred Rowe (Monkey Trouble) takes his accomplished paintbrush to Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes. The rosy cheeked, rotund potentate is attended to by an elite troupe of mime-ish monkeys, their noses as high as their yellow bowties; the hucksters are depicted as roguish foxes with a pirate-like patch and swagger. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Duntze embroiders the classic story with exquisite visual details; her lanky, angular people with a jaundiced glow add a playfully sinister note. Ages 5-8. (Apr.)
Kirkus Reviews
From Lewis (The Steadfast Tin Soldier, 1992, etc.), a plucky new treatment of the familiar tale. Here the emperor, everyone's favorite sartorial obsessive, is a preWW I dandy, but he is the same chump as always, duped by the two prankster weavers. Their cloth, "invisible to anyone who was unfit for his job or particularly stupid," has all the court's self-important retainers and grandees in a swivet: They can't see the cloth but dare not admit it in fear of being branded an incompetent or a fool. The ruse goes all the way to the top, to the emperor's self-doubts and conventionality, and his absurd procession: When exposed for the clown he is by a child's shout, the emperor remains calm" `If I stop, it will spoil the procession. And that would never do.' So on he stepped, even more proudly than before." The translation is fine and sure, and Barrett's artwork is splendid, full of lively vignettes and early-20th-century details, complete with a company of wise dogs and the impeccably expressive faces of bystanders.
