The Secret Room - Hardcover

Shulevitz, Uri

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374341699 ISBN 13: 9780374341695

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1993

Synopsis

The king's clever treasurer tries to clear his name when the chief minister accuses the treasurer of stealing.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Though the exact setting is unspecified (Turkey? the Central Asian steppes? Egypt? Greece?), this tale is nonetheless imbued with very strong atmosphere. A liberal sprinkling of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern architectural elements (minarets, onion-domes, brightly tiled roofs, window moldings right out of Aladdin ) are given a postmodern twist, enlivened by Shulevitz's stained-glass-bright watercolors and crazy-quilt graphics. Impressed with the cleverness of a simple man he meets in the desert, a king appoints him treasurer. The man quickly gains the monarch's favor--as well as the envy of the chief counselor, who plots to bring him down by accusing him of embezzlement. A search of the elderly man's home reveals a secret room, but instead of containing plunder as the wicked counselor has suggested, it's empty except for some sand and a small window--a place, the man tells the king, where he can retreat to remind himself that he's still the same simple fellow he always was. The story's message--that wealth and power don't have to corrupt, and that the measure of true wisdom is humility--carries echoes of many classic fairy tales, but the fresh delivery is Shulevitz's own. All ages.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Another provocative fable from a Caldecott medalist whose most recent book was Toddlecreek Post Office (1990). When a king meets a man who explains that his beard is black while the hair on his head is white because ``my head is older,'' the king decrees, ``You must not tell this to anyone until you have seen my face ninety-nine times.'' When the king's wily counselor tries to trick the man into breaking this edict, the man asks for only 99 copper coins in return--but they bear the king's likeness. Impressed with his cleverness, the king makes him treasurer; later, after again outwitting the jealous counselor by coming up with an honest and modest rebuttal to his false charges, he's appointed counselor in his place. Shulevitz's art--richly saturated colors, simple, angular forms, strongly energetic compositions, adroit caricatures--are a particular pleasure here, while the tale's classic structure and gentle wisdom especially recommend it for storytelling. (Picture book. 4-10) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0374341699
• ISBN 13: 9780374341695
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 32