Reviews: (by author)

Johnson, D.B. Eddie's Kingdom. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. $16.00

Eddie lives in an apartment at Peaceable 1830, a building which isn't living up to its name. His neighbors constantly bicker at each other and blame Eddie for everything imaginable. How can he bring peace to his neighborhood? D.B. Johnson, the creator of the superb Henry series (where a bear plays the part of Henry David Thoreau), brings us a refreshing tale extolling the necessary values underlying a worthwhile sense of community.
Young Eddie is an artist. He prefers drawing trees and cars and buildings and animals to drawing people but the constant lack of civility among his neighbors leaves him no choice. He decides to visit each of them and ask if he can draw their picture. He braves their ill-tempered greetings with sanguine ease and proceeds to create a group portrait of the building's tenants to be unveiled at a grand reception on the roof. When the moment of truth arrives, the neighbors are astonished and delighted to see themselves portrayed as animals. Eddie's painting unites his neighbors in a spirit of self-deprecatory humor and harmony is finally restored to the Eddie's kingdom. Cooper's wildly original cubist paintings bring his subtly humorous text to life, and provide a perfect visual foil to the piercing social commentary embedded in the story.

-Mark Janssen, March 2006

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