By Corinna Luyken
A funny fairy tale about a whole kingdom that forgets how to get along and can't stop arguing.
It starts small. Someone argues over whether a brush or a comb is better for the king's tangled beard. Then people argue over letters, then over spoons, and before long the whole kingdom argues all the time, about everything, and nobody can even remember how it started. So the king and queen do the only sensible thing: they hold a grand contest to crown the best arguer in the land.
It takes something your child does every day, squabbling over nothing, and blows it up to kingdom size so it turns funny instead of tense. The wit is dry, the pictures are packed with enormous wigs and ridiculous hats to pore over, and the whole thing sneaks up on a real idea: that arguing to win isn't the same as figuring things out. Nobody gets lectured, which is exactly why it works.