A Crown for Kate
By: Jenny Phillips
Illustrated By: Ekaterina Kolesnikova
Publication: January 1, 2020 by The Good and the Beautiful
55 pages
Genre: Children's, Picture Books, Level-1
Source: Personal Library
( Goodreads )
Description--Travel to a land long ago where a girl named Kate wants nothing more than to be a real queen one day. Although Kate, being blind, can’t see the beautiful mill and land where she lives, she can feel, smell, and hear the beauty around her. When Kate unexpectedly finds a real crown in the forest, she is taken on a journey that will change her life.
Most of the Level-1 readers we have are from publishers like Random House and Scholastics. But we use a homeschool curriculum company called The Good and the Beautiful for a lot of our curriculum. The Good and the Beautiful has its own books written by several authors. Jenny Phillips, the company's creator, writes many of the books herself. And the company emphasizes good and beautiful literature that has strong moral values. I cannot appreciate this more. Most of the "normal" level-1 reader books are about 32 pages long with one or two short sentences per page or opening. A Crown for Kate is a good bit longer with 55 pages and usually, one or two sentences per opening.
A Crown for Kate begins with a challenging words page that includes 5 words used in the book that might be a little beyond the child's reading level, but I like that this is included at the beginning of the book so that you can go over these words with your child before they come to them in the book. This way maybe they will already recognize the words and be able to read them from memory already. Or if they get to one of these words while reading and can't sound it out phonetically or remember it, they will at least not be surprised and feel discouraged for not being able to read a challenging word.
A Crown for Kate is about a blind girl and her family. The book focuses on all of the things Kate is still capable of doing despite her disability. Kate loved stories about queens and often made herself a crown out of flowers. One day, Kate stumbles upon a crown in the forest. Kate knows that the crown needs to be returned to the rightful owner, the queen. Kate and her father go to the castle to return the crown to the queen. Kate and her father were invited to stay at the castle for a week. Kate got to experience life in a castle, but she began to miss her home. Kate realizes that all the small things in her life gave her great joy. Kate realizes that being a queen is good if you do good. And being a regular man is good if you are a good man. No matter who you are if you are good and do good, that is what is most important. Now Kate dreams not of being a queen, but of being a very good girl.
A Crown for Kate is a 5-Star level-1 book for sure. (The Good and the Beautiful technically rates this book as a level 1B.) I love the morals and messages included in this book. We need more companies that focus on the messages we're sending to young kids. I also like that this is longer than a typical level-1 reader so that my son can get accustomed to reading longer books even though there aren't as many words on one page. This book is broken into three "chapters" so your child doesn't have to read it all in one sitting. Have you or your child read A Crown for Kate? What did you think? Let me know!
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