The King of the Birds

Writing children's books about famous people is an interesting endeavor. This one takes Flannery O'Connor's childhood interest in chickens and peacocks and turns it into a little story.

The illustrations are charming. (The endpapers are pictured above.)

The wit is endearing. (Above is the peahen's response to the peacock's attention.)

But the idea that "life was a little too quite" is a refrain of the text. The claim that Flannery O'Connor was interested in attention (even when she was a child) is just plain old off-putting. She was shy! She was interested in oddity, but not, I think, for the attention that it brought her.

Apologies for the quality of these photographs.