Quick Booktalk
The residents of the village of Handkerchief have done their best to ignore the constant sneezing that comes from Castle Gesundheit, but a young girl named Fiona finally decides it's time to get to the bottom of it and see if it can be stopped.
About the Illustrations
The pictures in this book have a style that is typically found in graphic novels, with cartoonish figures and many speech bubbles. There is also accompanying prose on each page. The illustrator uses facial expressions and action scenes to keep the reader's attention and to further the humorous plot in a visually amusing way. The backdrops of the castle and the village are also rendered in appealing vibrant colors, with fun details that bring to life both settings.
Story Time Possibilities
I struggle to read books aloud when they have a lot of speech bubbles, mostly because it is hard to signal to the audience which character is speaking. If I were to attempt it, it would be with an elementary school audience, both because they are more likely to understand the format, and because I think the humor is targeted toward that age. This is a great book around which to build a themed story time because it works with so many good ones: colds and sneezing, sleep disturbances, castles, cats, royalty, etc.
Readers Advisory
There are a lot of good read-alikes for this book: Bob, Not Bob by Audrey Vernick and Liz Garton Scanlon, There's a Dinosaur on the Thirteenth Floor by Wade Bradford, Maple and Willow's Christmas Tree by Lori Nichols, Over at the Castle by Boni Ashburn, Princess Hyacinth by Florence Parry Heide, and many more. It's a fun story about a topic many kids can relate to (allergies) and the problem is solved by the child character, which always feels satisfying to kids.
Disclosure
I received a physical copy of Castle Gesundheit from Candlewick Press in exchange for an honest review.
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