“As a boy and as a king I must imagine … I simply must imagine something better. And speak it. Loudly.”
—King Tutankhamun, the boy king, excerpt from The Boy and the Boy King, by George H. Lewis and A. D. Lubow.
To be an astronaut, a child must first sail on a moonbeam; to be a healer, whisper to the Sphinx; to be a leader, crisscross the stars. Or so says this picture book aimed at 6- to 9-year-olds but useful for parents to read too. Bun-Bun, a stuffed rabbit whose magic is either imagined or, well, magical, leads his human, young Arthur of NY, to slide across a moonbeam to meet Egypt’s King Tut. Arthur encourages the lonely Boy King to act his age, not his rank. And off the boys and Bun Bun go, to play along the Nile and sail across the sky in a chariot pulled by a wild stallion—leaving Tut emboldened to face his duties and Arthur poised for more imaginative play. With lines like “the magic of today is the science of tomorrow,” this delightful story reminds parents to safeguard their children’s imaginations—and their own.