Customer Reviews

The King Who Rained (Stories to Go!)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most people over the age of, say, 28 will remember Fred Gwynne most for his role as the flat-headed, bolt-necked Herman Munster on the TV show, "The Munsters." He also starred in a number of miscellaneous movies and "Car 54, Where Are You?" However, many people do not know that he is a gifted and very humorous author of children's picture books. "The King who Rained" is but one of his fine works for children that plays with language, especially homophones.

Homophones are words that sound alike but are spelled differently or have multiple meanings, and this book is full of `em!! A little girl explains all the odd things she hears her family say, like "Daddy says he has a mole on his nose". The accompanying illustration has a tall, thin man (who looks profoundly like Mr. Gwynne himself) with a small, brown, furry subterranean mammal perched on his nose. Similarly, the girl's mother is "a little horse" sometimes and asks for the throat spray ("when I bring it to her, she calls me a little deer"). The title of the book itself is a wonderful play on words as well.

Mr. G. has written and illustrated three books of homophones, "The King Who Rained" as well as "A Chocolate Mouse for Dinner" and "A Little Pigeon Toad". He's also written a beautiful and very funny book about a girl taking her mutt dog to a dog show, "Easy to See Why."

All these books by Mr. Gwynne are easy to read and lavishly illustrated with large pictures. They're perfect choices to bring into any classroom to illustrate English homonyms and idiom. When I use them in class, I encourage students to create their own (of course, I also love to tell them a bit about Mr. Gwynne the actor, too!!). This and other works by Mr. G. come highly recommended!!

I came across this book about 25 years ago quite by accident and have treasured it (and all the Fred Gwynne books) since. Remember Fred? He played Herman Munster on TV... and was in the old "Car 54, where are you?" show. Little did I know he was a talented children's author/illustrator. The drawings are as precious as the text... some of them resemble Fred (and I assume his children as well). His perception of how children think of routine phrases like "pigeon-toed" or "a king who reigned [rained]" are delightful. My children are grown now, and I will share these with my grandchildren. They are wonderful.

I have been searching for the book for a long time and finally realized that the internet was just a click away from finding my favorite book that I read as a child. I used to visit my local library and sit on the floor in front of the shelf where the book was located and read it over and over and over and over again. I could never get enough. Now I am even happier to find that it is still in print and I can have one for my 5 year old. I can't wait until he gets to hear it. I hope he likes it just as much as I did and still do.

My teacher read this to us in second grade. I thought it was hilarious, especially when "my mother had a frog in her throat."

Ages ago, a friend of my mother's bought this book for me. It was a beautiful hardcover, and I have cherished it. Now I am going to use it to introduce "idioms" to fifth-graders. This book is a definite must have for any mother, teacher, or child at heart!

THE KING WHO RAINED is a humorous collection of a young girl's mental illustrations when she hears various homonyms. The book, written by the late Fred Gwynne, introduces children to the exciting, fun, and sometimes confusing world of the English language. This book is one of three books Gwynne wrote about homonyms and when you put all three together you have a nice trilogy. Children love reading these books and they work well as a springboard into other fun and witty word games. A delight.

My fourth grade class throughly enjoyed the humor in Gwynne's books: The King Who Rained, A Chocolate Moose for Dinner, and A Little Pigeon Toed. They thought the books were very funny, and they tied right in with our spelling unit on homophones too!

This book is one of my favorites from childhood and I can't wait to share it with my child. The play-on-words is fabulous and sticks with you throughout your life. The next time you hear someone say a line from the book, you'll instantly visualize the book and the illustrations. I would recommend this book to anyone, young or old.

I hate to post a negative review, especially since the author is someone I respect, but I just need to put this out there so other librarians like me won't make the same mistake--we just don't have the budget to afford books that won't circulate. I was excited to order this book--the premise is great and I figured teachers would love this in their classrooms--but it's so old-fashioned that kids today just don't get the jokes and haven't heard the sayings. Like sheep gambling on the lawn and the family coat-of-arms. It's targeted for young children but even the fourth-graders at my school didn't get most of the text. I think this book is amusing to adults, but is not for today's kids.

Yet another fine book of play-on-words from Fred Gwynne. Kids love the pictures that literally illustrate the text, and these books usually have us a giggling hysterically. I'm on the lookout for "A Little Pigeon-Toad" and "The Sixteen Hand Horse".