Cover Image: The Kingdom of Glee

The Kingdom of Glee

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

<em>The Kingdom of Glee</em> by Nicholas Tana and illustrated by Jessica Abbot and Elise Leutwyler is a simple book with a fairly simple message: money does not make you happy, kindness does. There's an incredibly huge roundabout throughout the book to get to this message, but ultimately this is really all that it's about. Money vs. kindness and the people who make those decisions. And I mean, it's cute and colorful and definitely decent for children but, I'll be honest, I didn't really like it.

So, the story basically follows two kingdoms: the kingdom of Glee and the kingdom of Angry. Everyone in Glee is incredibly and everyone in Angry is, well, angry. In Glee, everyone is kind and helpful and they build each other up. In Angry, everyone is selfish and the wizard ruling the kingdom becomes convinced that the only reason the people of Glee in the kingdom just over the hill are so happy is that they are blessed with mountains of gold.

And so, in an attempt to procure happiness for himself, the wizard sends monsters from his kingdom to steal that very gold.

The only problem? Glee has no gold!

The rest of the story follows how laziness, jealousy, and thoughtlessness can make people unhappy, but how literally the opposite will allow happiness to flourish. And it's not bad, really. The themes, overall, are really good. I think it's really just the way it was written that didn't do it for me. The rhyming isn't always great and, while still good, the messages are all thrown into your face.

But, you know, kids will love it. The illustrations are great, bright, and colorful. There's a clear villain, conflict, and resolution. So, in the end, it's decent enough. Just not one of my favorites.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

This review will go live on the Reader Fox blog on June 10, 2020.

Was this review helpful?

I thought that the images in the book were nice and bright

The way that the book was written was great too and I loved the rhyming nature of the book, it had a great flow to it.

The book focuses on what makes people happy and even though there may be others that are jealous and want to ruin that, you can ultimately overcome it if you try with sharing, caring and kindness.

The book has a good, strong and positive message - it is 4 stars from me for this one

Was this review helpful?

Such a cute book about how being kind and caring can change not just you but also those around you. The simple rhyme, fairy tale style, and bright illustrations will be sure to keep kids entertained.

Was this review helpful?

The Kingdom of Glee is a bright picture that teaches the true meaning of happiness.

The Kingdom of Glee is the perfect kingdom. Everyone is happy, kind, and they enjoy their lives together. King Gentle is in charge of protecting his kingdom.

No so far away from the Kingdom of Glee there is a kingdom that is nothing like the Kingdom of Glee. This kingdom is unhappy, depressed, and dismisses the joyfulness of their close neighbors. This place is known as the Kingdom of Angry, and it is ruled by the wicked wizard named Wroth.

Determined to destroy the Kingdom of Glee, Wroth decides to send three horrible monsters to destroy the happiness of the Glee. The first month he sends is Lethargos, and he makes everyone lazy and unwilling to work. The Kingdom of Glee comes to a standstill as no one seems to be motivated to complete their daily tasks. Through the cunningness of their King Gentle and the yumminess of his stew, this monster is tricked to leave the kingdom.

Angry at Lethargos inability to destroy the Kingdom of Glee, Wroth sends Envy, the green monster, in his place. Envy does quick work through the Kingdom of Glee. But once again, the love and intelligence of King Gentle is able to defeat Envy.

Last, but not least, the angry Wroth sends the meanest monster of all to finish the Kingdom of Glee forever. This time he sends the monster named Thoughtless to the Kingdom of Glee. Thoughtless spreads his selfishness through the lands of the Kingdom of Glee. Distraught from the behavior of his once happy subjects, King Gentle decides to share his secrets of happiness to this last monster.

It is through this moment that the Kingdom of Glee may finally have a chance to save themselves forever.

Was this review helpful?

With a cute rhyming cadence this book flows nicely. The illustrations are bold and easily translate to children. Great book and just in time for summer reading theme of fairytales at libraries in 2020.

Was this review helpful?

I loved the images in this book and how the words flowed so nicely while reading it to my kids. Both of which are important in children books you read along. My favorite was it was cute and bright enough to read to babies yet applied to older kids too introduce the concept of happiness and sharing while introducing the ideas of thoughtless, envy, and lethargic(os) through the use of monsters arriving in the kingdom of Glee. I can see this being a book where you notice new concepts and ideas each time you read the book. Loved it

Was this review helpful?

Really fun book and sing song rhymes. I had fun reading it to my granddaughter and it kept her interested till the end.

Was this review helpful?

*received from netgalley for honest review* Very simple book but I still enjoyed it! I think this is a great books for young children and gives a great (but again very simplified) message, the art is also very cute and I love that the king is shown doing things rather than others doing it for him!

Was this review helpful?

I had such high hopes for The Kingdom of Glee but left this story feeling a bit let down.  This book tells the story of two neighboring kingdoms, Glee and Angry.  Like the names suggest, the people who live in Glee live very happy lives and generally get along with each other while the people who live in Angry are grumpy and don't get along well  The ruler of Angry decides he has had enough of Glee being so happy and plots to steal the happiness from Glee. 

After reading this book, I felt just okay about it.  While I loved the vibrant illustrations, I thought the plot overall was lacking.  I loved the color scheme of the two kingdoms and I really appreciated how you can tell which kindgom a character belongs to just based on their outfit. In terms of the plot, this book really spells out the moral of the story with a heavy hand.  The author could have left a little more for the reader to do instead of completely spelling it out.  I also thought that some of the phrases were a little odd, especially when read aloud.  I know that this book is intended to be a read-aloud book, and most of the rhymes worked, but some of them seemed a bit weird and would require extra explanations for young listeners.  This breaks up the flow of the story, which can be super distracting for young readers. 

Overall I would give this book two out of five stars.  Even though I really enjoyed the illustrations, the moral was too heavy-handed for me and I don't think this would make a good read-aloud for my students.

Was this review helpful?

The Kingdom of Glee by Nicholas Tana, 42 pages. PICTURE BOOK
New Classic Books, 2019. $25.
Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: G; Violence: G
BUYING ADVISORY: EL - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
The people of the Kingdom of Glee are always happy. Sure that he knows the secret, mean Wizard Wroth from the Kingdom of Angry sends monsters to steal King Gentle’s gold. What will happen to the kingdom?
A cute story with an obvious message, I found The Kingdom of Glee to be charming to read. Tana wrote the book in rhyming couplets, with only a few of them being forced and taking a couple tries to read correctly. The combination of the fun writing and bright illustrations makes this book a great addition to any collection of children’s books.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

Was this review helpful?

This was such a great book! I loved the King of Glee. He is so wonderful at taking each set-back in stride and coming up with a new solution! When we finished the book, the ratings request popped up on the app and my daughter says "That a 5 star mom". She loved it and I loved it!

Was this review helpful?

This newly released picture book is for all teachers, parents, and guidance counselors that are looking for a book to reinforce and instill positive character development in youngsters! “The Kingdom of Glee” is a great picture book for students that are almost ready for chapter books, seeing as this is a longer picture book.

The book follows the rulers and citizens of two separate kingdoms, Glee and Angry. As you can guess, the kingdom of Glee is a happy place, and the wizard of Angry is convinced they must be happy because they are hiding gold. So, the wizard of Angry sends three monsters (Lethargos, Envy, and Thoughtless) to make the people of Glee miserable so they will forfeit their gold.

Author Nicholas Tana uses rhythmic rhymes to move the reader throughout the story. It creates a musical read aloud for young children that was only displaced by a few false rhymes and disruptions to the meter. The illustrations were colorful and the characters were diverse. This book would be useful in the classroom to open up a discussion on why and how those unhappy feelings of envy, laziness, and thoughtlessness impact ourselves and those around us.

I gave this book 4 stars because though the false rhymes and disruptions to the rhythmic meter will not bother children, as a music teacher, they threw me out of the story a bit. Great message that never grows old!

Was this review helpful?

Adorable read aloud with clever rhyming phrases. The story reminds me of the Grinch or the more modern Trolls movie. An excellent message for young children!

Was this review helpful?

This is an adorable story about what makes a person happy. It's not gold or various ways to be selfish, but talking care of others and being friendly. The illustrations are adorable and bright. The lessons to be learned are weaved through an enchanting story of the Kingdom of Glee and the monsters that come to threaten their happiness.

Was this review helpful?

An enchanting story of the king of Glee who teaches Wroth how to be happy and kind.

The rhymes and the images were cute. The I loved how everyone was won over without fighting. Simply with a kind and gentle way you can help people change for the better.

I love fantasy stories and I think they’re a great way to teach kids good lessons.

Was this review helpful?

This is a simple, colourful picture book with a message that kind of hits the reader over the head. The resolution is facile and unrealistic... but kids might enjoy it more than adults.

In the Kingdom of Glee, everyone is happy because they share and care and love one another. In the neighbouring Kingdom of Angry lives a wizard who thinks that the people of Glee are happy because they have gold. (I don't know why he thinks this; he just does.) So he sends monsters to torment Glee, hoping that when they're done, King Gentle will give up his gold. But, of course, that's not what happens. King Gentle turns the monsters around, leading to the conclusion where the final monster tells the wizard the real secret to Glee's happiness... and the wizard accepts it without question and everyone lives happily ever after.

It's really too easy of a resolution, and deeply unsatisfying. The wizard could've at least shown a bit of doubt, or pushed back a bit. His turnaround is so sudden that I thought that maybe he was faking it as a way to further antagonize King Gentle and his people. But... no. What you see is what you get.

Because of this, I don't think any but the youngest of readers would really enjoy the story. The illustrations are colourful and sort of cute (and show a lot of diversity for a fairy-tale kingdom), but the story is too trite to really work as a moral fable. (Also on the topic of the illustrations, I'm not crazy about the cover. I wish it had some of the characters on it. A picture of a castle doesn't really do much to intrigue potential readers.)

Was this review helpful?