The Crown

By Author / Illustrator

Emily Kapff

Genre

Environment

Age range(s)

Publisher

Walker Books Ltd

ISBN

9781406397130

Format

Hardback

Published

06-04-2023

Synopsis

You have the power to pass down ... a different kind of crown.

Speaking from the future, a girl wears a crown made from the rubbish passed down to her by previous generations. Her Earth is covered by waste, but beneath the landfill she discovers a book of pictures that show her the past - our world as it is now - and she is filled with joy by the beautiful sky, land, sea and creatures that she sees. Alongside her companion horse, she experiences the beauty of our Earth and imagines a world where her crown is no longer made from rubbish, but from an abundance of life.

This is a lyrical, stunningly illustrated debut that expresses our need to act now to save the environment, while weaving a positive message about protecting the world we live in.

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Reviews

The Crown is such a beautiful book! Speaking to readers from the future, a girl wears a crown which she has inherited. But this is no ordinary crown - it is made from the rubbish left to her by past generations. The hill she stands on is created by landfill, and in the waste, she finds a book which shows the world as it is now; the beauty of the oceans, the wonders of the sky, the diversity of Earth, and she imagines a world where the crown she wears might be so different…

The illustrations in The Crown are stunning, instantly capturing attention and making the reader pause to think. The girl's crown is shown in shades of grey, a tyre forming a ring round her head piled high with junk. Her companion, a gentle horse, patiently waits at her side, offering a comforting presence as she looks at the world she has been left. Children will notice her pained expression and be able to identify some of the rubbish as items they use everyday, provoking conversations about her world and how it has come to be as it is.

As she opens the book she has found, colour glows from the pages, reminding the reader of the innate beauty of our Earth and reinforcing the importance of looking after it. She refers to what she sees in the book as a 'fairy tale', an unbelievable world compared to her own. The books closes with some ideas for ways to help change things, written on tree stumps.

A deeply poignant book, The Crown would be excellent to share at home or to use with classes of all ages as part of PSHE lessons, for assemblies, for art lessons or for story time. It could also be used to inspire writing, poetry, artwork… Simply stunning!

Picture book / Reviewed by Sue Wilsher, teacher