The Cardboard Kingdom is a story about the summer vacation of the kids in a neighborhood. The children spend their days playing in a fantasy world of their own devising, using props made from various materials they find to add to their kingdom, but primarly cardboard. The kingdom and its inhabitants are as rich and diverse as the imaginations of the children who pool their storytelling skills to bring the setting to life.
This book encourages children to get outside and play creatively. It also may inspire all sorts of inventions and building, from forts to costumes to props. That makes this story worth reading to children who are at an age to enjoy such creative and active play. The characters of the story come from all sorts of families, cultures, and personality types, and children should find it easy to identify with one or more of the characters. Young readers will likely warm up to these characters as even the shyest of the characters learns to be friends with the others. This book is a light-hearted story of laid-back fun, and the colorful and plentiful illustrations make it a quick and easy read to inspire confidence in young middle grade readers.
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: None
Violence/Gore: Report of someone having their stomach pumped after accidental poisoning; character is mildly injured by a toy weapon; several instances of imaginary violence; characters shoot each other with water guns and fight with toy weapons a few times; a boy threatens to beat up another boy; an adult breaks a child’s toy in a fit of anger; a few instances of minor property damage; a character pushes another down.
Sex/Nudity: A boy who is playing a girl’s role in a play doesn’t want another boy to carry him; characters joke about two boys kissing (but they do not do so); transgenderism is obliquely mentioned, as a parent tells a boy who likes dressing as a girl character that “it’s okay” if he has something he’d like to tell her.
Mature Subject Matter:
Bullying; domestic strife.
Alcohol / Drug Use:
None
