My son (8) got this book for Christmas, from me. I couldn’t remember having read it before, but James Thurber is a fantastic, wry story teller, and from a quick flick I thought he’d enjoy the story.

Well, he brought it to school and began reading it during their reading time. And one day he brought it home to me. He wanted me to read it, too. “You’ll see when the scary part comes up,” he said.

So I sat down with it one night and blazed through it in a sitting. It’s a lovely, quick read. Quirky and funny the way James Thurber can be — it reads like he’s having so much fun telling the story and the backstory from the introduction makes it all the sweeter. He maybe overindulges himself sometimes, but you can forgive it, because it sort of fits with his theme of over-the-top villainy and the tenuous nature of the Golux’s solutions and plans for the prince.

It’s the sort of book you want to read out loud. It’s fairy tale-esque, complete with daring, head-spinning leaps from one moment to the next, a sort of propulsion by a water cannon with a kink in the hose. Worth a few hours of your time.