The King's Taster - Hardcover

Oppel, Kenneth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060753722 ISBN 13: 9780060753726

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2009

Synopsis

Max is the cook's dog. And because he is also the king's taster, Max gets to feast on

French Fries!

Rose Pudding!

Cheese Pie!

Pizza!

No wonder Max loves his job. Who wouldn't want to dine on these delicious dishes?

The new king, that's who.

And if the new king has his way, it won't just be their job that the cook and Max lose!

About this title

About the Author:

KENNETH OPPEL wrote his first novel at age fourteen and hasn’t looked back. His books include the Silverwing series, which has sold over a million copies around the world; Airborn, winner of a Governor General’s Award and the Michael L. Printz Award; and his latest, Inkling, which the New York Times called “astonishing.” Ken Oppel lives with his family in Toronto. You can find him online at kennethoppel.ca and on Twitter at @kennethoppel.

 

Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher are an illustration team with more than forty picture books in print. Their work has garnered rave reviews and won awards. Their books include My Many Colored Days, Bebop Express, I Walk at Night, New York's Bravest, The Velveteen Rabbit, and The Salamander Room. They were also concept artists for Pixar's Toy Story and A Bug's Life. They live in California with their son.

Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher are an illustration team with more than forty picture books in print. Their work has garnered rave reviews and won awards. Their books include My Many Colored Days, Bebop Express, I Walk at Night, New York's Bravest, The Velveteen Rabbit, and The Salamander Room. They were also concept artists for Pixar's Toy Story and A Bug's Life. They live in California with their son.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* Max loves his job as the cook’s dog and the king’s taster, making sure the food isn’t poisoned. He enthuses, “My name’s Max and I eat like a king.” However, when the new king (a young boy) refuses to eat the food, Max and the cook go in search of kitchens in Paris, Italy, and Mexico for tasty new recipes, but French fries, pizza, and chili tacos are all rejected. “Off with his head!” orders the king. Unable to sleep that night, Max follows a shadow scuttling out of the kitchen; he wakes the cook and they peek through the keyhole. There is His Highness sitting in bed eating candy—licorices, ginger cookies, and huge hunks of marzipan! When the cook threatens to tell his mother, the king relents, and, at last, eats everything on the plate. The mixed-media illustrations are deliciously capricious with clever collage details—for example, the cook’s jacket is constructed of photographed fabric with handwritten recipes all over it, and the beagle, Max, for some goofy reason, wears glasses. Kids will relish this comic culinary calamity, especially the peek-a-boo sight of the king in his accidentally revealing pjs. A crackerjack treat. Grades K-3. --Julie Cummins

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0060753722
• ISBN 13: 9780060753726
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Fancher Lou, Johnson Steve