King Bitram of Binn worked hard. He had to, because he needed to look after the Dike Trees, which protected his kingdom from the sea. But after a hard day’s work, the page Eric would fetch the king’s stilts so that the king could race around on them for fun. But when nasty Lord Droon forces Eric to hide the stilts, King Bitram finds that without play he can’t do his work . . . and it leads to disaster. Luckily Eric rescues the stilts—and the kingdom. One of the earliest works of Dr. Seuss, this story of The Kings Stilt’s is written in prose. But the marvelously detailed, cartoonlike black-and-white drawings (with touches of red), the wonderful storytelling, and the quiet message about the balance of work and play, are all classic Seuss.

Tie-in Activity: Help children understand the balance of work and play by assigning chores. Even very young children can benefit from doing simple tasks, such as putting away toys or matching clean socks. If you like, make a chore chart. For every chore your child does, he gets a star. After a certain number of stars, he earns a reward of extra playtime—just like King Bitram.