Danny and the Kings

by Susan Cooper, Jos. A. Smith (Illustrator)

Although Danny's little Christmas tree is run over by a truck, smashing Danny's dream of bringing a tree to his younger brother in their poor trailer home, the truck driver turns out to be an extraordinary person.

Genres: Picture Books, Christmas

32 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 1993

About the author

Susan Cooper's latest book is the YA novel "Ghost Hawk" (2013)

Susan Cooper was born in 1935, and grew up in England's Buckinghamshire, an area that was green countryside then but has since become part of Greater London. As a child, she loved to read, as did her younger brother, who also became a writer. After attending Oxford, where she became the first woman to ever edit that university's newspaper, Cooper worked as a reporter and feature writer for London's Sunday Times; her first boss was James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

Cooper wrote her first book for young readers in response to a publishing house competition; "Over Sea, Under Stone" would later form the basis for her critically acclaimed five-book fantasy sequence, "The Dark Is Rising." The fourth book in the series, "The Grey King," won the Newbery Medal in 1976. By that time, Susan Cooper had been living in America for 13 years, having moved to marry her first husband, an American professor, and was stepmother to three children and the mother of two.

Cooper went on to write other well-received novels, including "The Boggart" (and its sequel "The Boggart and the Monster"), "King of Shadows", and "Victory," as well as several picture books for young readers with illustrators such as Ashley Bryan and Warwick Hutton. She has also written books for adults, as well as plays and Emmy-nominated screenplays, many in collaboration with the actor Hume Cronyn, whom she married in 1996. Hume Cronyn died in 2003 and Ms. Cooper now lives in Marshfield MA. When Cooper is not working, she enjoys playing piano, gardening, and traveling.

Recent books include the collaborative project "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure" and her biography of Jack Langstaff titled "The Magic Maker." Her newest book is "Ghost Hawk."

Visit her Facebook pages: www.facebook.com/SusanCooperFanPage
www.facebook.com/GhostHawkBySusanCooper

Reviews

[Amberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Christmas story is about a boy named Danny who wants to have a Christmas tree in his little trailer for his younger brother Joe. While practicing for the school play in which Danny is one of the three wisemen or kings, his teacher tells him that her grandmother believed that the Three Kings were still on the earth helping people. Danny meets three truck drivers who become the Three Kings to him.

This story is a quick read with a modern day, relevant setting. It illustrates how we can be someone else's miracle. Great for kids of all ages.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Danny longs for his baby brother Joe to have a Christmas tree in this lovely holiday picture book, but his mother tells him that while she can afford to give the two boys gifts, there simply isn't any money left over for a tree this year. Matters seem to be looking up when his friend Steve, repentant for having punched Danny in a brief fit of anger, gives him a little evergreen from his garden, but then a near miss on the highway leaves the little tree destroyed, and his plan in ruins. Little does Danny realize however, that the truck drivers he meets, having learned of his plan, have decided to play the role of the Three Kings...

I haven't seen very many children's books which highlight both the magic of the Christmas season and the experiences of working class people, so Danny and the Kings was quite a treat. Danny and his family are clearly poor, living in a small trailer in a trailer park next to a busy highway. His mother mentions his father at one point, hinting at the possible death of this absent parent, sometime in the past. Despite this fact, the narrative here is matter-of-fact, depicting these circumstances, not as a tragedy, but as the simple reality with which our eponymous protagonist must contend. Danny's desire to do something generous for his little brother is rewarded by the three truckers, working men who might be the Three Kings, or who might simply be acting as the Three Kings, in much the same way parents act as Santa Claus to their children. I liked the open-ended way that the narrative approached this question, as it hints at one of the central truths of Christianity: that its adherents are meant to emulate Christ, to act as he would, as much as they are able, given the lesser gifts at their disposal. Susan Cooper's unsentimental telling makes this message more powerful I think, and her text is well-matched by illustrator Jos. A. Smith's watercolor artwork, which is beautiful but realistic. This pair also worked together on Matthew's Dragon , which I now hope to track down. As for this one, I would recommend it to picture book readers looking for stories about Christmas, and how the Christmas spirit can often be found in all kinds of places and in the hearts of all kinds of people.

[Lisa Rathbun · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story is very realistic -- a mom and her sons living in a trailer, kids who argue and fight, good intentions that don't work out -- but ends with a generous act that reminds readers that sometimes (in the words of another reviewer) "we can be someone else's miracle." I think the biggest problem people would have with this story today is that the boy gets a ride back home in a semi with a man THAT HE HAS JUST MET! Perhaps it's mitigated by the fact that his neighbor knows the driver, but parents might be uncomfortable with this.

I love the main character's tender heart and how he longs for his brother to have a Christmas tree. I also like that the magic in this story is not provided by Santa Claus but by three strangers who just might be the Three Kings.

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am chagrined that I have not put so many of the books that I have read and would want others to read here on Goodreads. This is one of them. It is a Christmas classic for me. I believe in angles and to me it is a fact that there are those, like the three kings, still out there serving and protecting. And yes, this one does always make me cry.

[Emmaus Public Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Danny lives with his mother and baby brother Joey in a mobile home. It's Christmas, and he's appearing as a King in the Christmas pageant. More than anything he would like to share a Christmas tree with his baby brother, who has never seen one. Danny meets three wise men and experiences the joy of Christmas after a friend gives him a little tree, but it is destroyed on the way home.

[Teri · Rating 1 out of 5]

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