Reviews: (by author)

Lowenstein, Sallie. Sir Kyle and Lady Madeline. Kensington, MD: Lion Stone Books, 2007. ISBN 0-9658486-6-3. lionstone@juno.com

When Kyle, the male narrator of this very funny, imaginative story, moves in next door to Madeline, the two of them have to come to terms: how will they play together? Their visions of what should happen during fantasy play greatly diverge; Madeline keeps trying to kiss Kyle, which is what princesses are supposed to do to knights, and Kyle keeps squirming away to look for a dragon to fight. Madeline's insistence literally drives Kyle up a tree and there he finds his dragon. Unfortunately, just as Knight Kyle is about to vanquish the dragon, Princess Madeline kisses him again, spoiling his aim. The dragon then flings Madeline up into his tree, from where she calls upon Kyle to save her. Yes, he will, but on one condition: she has to promise not to kiss him anymore. She refuses. What kind of princess would she be if she relinquished that well-established right? Kyle goes home for dinner, and the last page returns us to the opening page, with everyone looking for Madeleine.

I liked this book for many reasons; I enjoyed the story that frames the fantasy, for it realistically portrays that boys and girls, even when they're friends because there are not other kids in the neighborhood, still have frequent rocky moments getting along. You know, gender stuff. Lowenstein humorously depicts these moments mainly through the dialog between her two well-drawn characters.

I mean "well drawn" in two ways. Lowenstein succeeds in depicting two seven-year-olds through her prose, and she also is the illustrator of the book. Kyle, Madeleine, the tree in question, and the dragon look just as they should. The dragon is especially nice, since he has a stained glass look and curls in lovely ways around the tree branches. Both illustrations and dialog clue us in that Kyle's helmet is actually a pail and his sword is actually a ruler, again indicating that this book is as much about how to play as it is about the actual imagined events.

Thus, the book, on an adult level, shows fantasy-play in the making, as rules and roles are laid down by the participants. When one breaks the rules as perceived by the other, problems of a light-hearted nature crop up. (We really don't think the dragon ate Madeline).

A very enjoyable and perceptive picture book.

A. Allison, June 2007

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