The King Who Rained

The King Who Rained

by Fred Gwynne

A king who rained for forty years? A coat of arms? Boars coming to dinner? No wonder a little girl is confused by the things her parents say. With his hilarious wordplay and zany illustrations, Fred Gwynne keeps children of all ages in stitches!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Humor, Language, Juvenile, Kids

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Fred Gwynne was a well-known actor in addition to being a renowned children's author. Best known as Herman Munster from the sitcom The Munsters, Gwynne's books such as The King Who Rained and A Chocolate Moose for Dinner employed clever homonym wordplay for lighthearted humor that have delighted children for generations. Altogether, Gwynne published nine books over a long career.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up because it exceeded expectations... which were already fairly high because I've been trying to find a copy of this to read for decades. Timeless classic for school-age children (not tots). Would be a fun mentor text.
---
Reread an LFL find April 2023; well worth reading again.

[Clay Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A modern day master piece of children literature. The art work is excellent and the writing with word play is inspired.

[Skip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Depending on your age, you will either know Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster on The Munsters television show or as the southern Judge in the movie, My Cousin Vinny. He is a talent, and this book is a very amusing play on common phrases with accompanying illustrations. For example in the book title: rained versus reigned. Delightful for kids of all ages. It's a shame that this book is now out of print.

[Luisa Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very witty picture book on homophones, and a few things that the child simply hears wrong. Very fun!

Ages: 5 - 10

Content Considerations: nothing to note.

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[Josh Caporale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fred Gwynne is known most for his role as Herman Munster on the classic 1960s television show, "The Munsters." He also played the role of Officer Francis Muldoon on "Car 54, Where Are You?," Jud Crandall in the original film adaptation of Stephen King's "Pet Sematary," and as Judge Chamberlain Haller in "My Cousin Vinny." Gwynne was also an author and illustrator to a few children's books, one of which I realized I enjoyed back in second grade called "It's Easy to See Why," about a girl entering her dog into a show. When I saw that Daedalus had a sale on this book, I had to pick it up and I am certainly glad I did.

The King Who Rained is a book of expressions and homonyms, told from the point of view of Gwynne's daughter, Madyn, and what it is she imagines when she hears her parents say something that sounds like something else. For instance, instead of imagining "a king who REIGNED, or ruled, for 40 years," she imagines "a king who RAINED, or served as a cloud with water pouring out, for 40 years." This book is filled with plenty of clever, witty, punny, and funny expressions that cannot help but make you smile. Please let me assure you that this book certainly made me smile.

Fred Gwynne was not happy about being typecasted as Herman Munster once he solidified himself as that particular character, but I will say that he does possess a great deal of merit in all of his other projects, be it acting or, in this case, writing AND illustrating. I love how many great ideas Gwynne was able to come up with through his daughter and the way she may or had interpreted expressions or homonyms, so much so that he wrote more books of this nature, such as "A Chocolate Moose for Dinner" and "A Little Pigeon Toad." I would like to add both books to my collection, as well as "It's Easy to See Why" and any other book of Gwynne's that catches my attention.

This is a book that can be enjoyed on so many occasions, from a bedtime story to learning tool in schools. Excellent book!

[Shiloah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a funny, creative book. We loved it!

[Shelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

The King Who Rained (1970), written and illustrated by Fred Gwynne, is a humorous collection of illustrations based on homophones. For example, the cover of the book as a king floating above the ground with rain pouring out of him onto the little girl who narrates. Children will find the pictures to be laugh out loud silly.

Themes: Homophones; Humor

Ways to use this book with chilren:
*Use together with Gwynne's A Little Pigeon Toad to introduce homophones.
*Have students draw humorous illustrations of other homophones.

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, so in my youth I was an extra for the movie My Cousin Vinny and it was among the best six weeks of my life. And I met Fred Gwynne and his lovely wife who were the sweetest people imaginable. And then I found out that he had written kids books. They're a lot like Amelia Bedelia, just playing around with the crazy English language. Anyway, I like them better, because of my author crush.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. Child needs to be old enough to understand wordplay, but it's so cute!

[LordTBR · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one, but the coat of arms is a thing of nightmares. May be one of the most grimdark things I’ve ever seen.

[Phyllis M. Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s like being a child again! I used think just like this a loooooong time ago!

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book filled with a collection of humorous homonyms written by television's favorite resident of 1313 Mocking Bird Lane.

[Angel Torres · Rating 3 out of 5]

That was a very enjoyable and funny story.

[Perdani Budiarti · Rating 5 out of 5]

My teacher read this book for us in the class today. And I really love the way the writer let the reader learn some homophonic words that made not only the girl in the story confused, but also us, the English learner.

Simple story with good illustration, best combination for a children book, right?

5*/5

[Linda (Miss Greedybooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by Herman Minster... Who Knew?

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay I bought this because Fred Gwynne wrote it. And it's fun.

[*JEN the booknerd* · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for the second time as an adult and still think this is the most adorable book EVER!!! All the stars!!

[Scott Boyken · Rating 5 out of 5]

My absolute favorite book as a kid. It will always hold a special place in my heart. Well done, Herman Munster.

[Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Might be confusing for the very young, but this adult enjoyed it! I have new admiration for Fred Gwynne!

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun.

[Cassandra Gelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Take my wife, please.

This review originally published at http://www.drttmk.com/books/king-who-....

It's not bad for a 1970s era children's book. The illustrations are kind of sketched, like they were done in crayon or possibly pastels. The entire book is just a list of idioms, like, "Daddy says there are forks in the road." And the illustration for the spread is a bunch of giant forks where roads would be, with cars and trucks driving over them. There's some overdone ones, like "Sometimes Mommy says she has a frog in her throat." And it's a woman looking at herself in a hand mirror, and there's a small frog inside her mouth, the child who's narrating the book looking on, shocked. I do like the, "My big sister's getting married and she says I can hold up her train." And the little kid is holding up this locomotive engine in the middle of a church. Then they get kind of ridiculous after a while, where it's just wordplay instead of idioms, like "Mommy says not to bother her when she's playing bridge." With a woman who has basically stiffened herself and laid out like a plank, with her feet on her chair and her head on a couch, and a dog and a cat walking across her. And, "I've heard Daddy talk about the foot prince in the snow," showing a man in a purple suit with feet all over his tunic.

The book is just goofy. It doesn't really have much of a story, but it's not bad, especially for a celebrity book. It's well done; it's put together and everything; there's just not much to it.

Message: Language is weird.

[Morgan Sorensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really cute about a child who is told a bunch of different things by their mom and dad. These different things were common phrases such as, "fork in the road," "frog in my throat," and "a little horse and need throat spray." While all of these adults might know, these phrases were brought to a literal interpretation from a child's perspective in the illustrations. This was a great book to laugh and look at the silly pictures. To use this in a classroom, I would first start using this with upper level students as there is some illustrations and sentences that could be seen as inappropriate for younger students. Additionally, when using this you would want to use it with intermediate students due to the alike words being used that are spelled a different way, but sound the same. These words are things like, "rain" and "reign", while they sound the exact same depending on the sentence you need to use the right spelling. Overall, this would be a very cute book to show students and kids about phrases that are funny, but also words that sound alike.

[Mackenzie Mountain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cute book doesn't have much of a continuous plot, but it is great for teaching idioms, homophones, and homonyms to kids using the humor. The main character of this book is continuously getting confused by what her parents mean when they use common figurative language phrases such as "forks in the road" and being "a little horse" when their throat is sore. The beautiful illustrations show what silly things she images they could possibly mean. The theme of this story is wordplay and it is designed to be perfect for an elementary literature arts classroom with children ages 6 to 10. My grandmother is an English teacher and this was our favorite book to read together while we giggled at the illustrations and she taught me what the little girl's parents actually meant.

[Stephanie Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A playful book that illustrates what a girl things when she hears a variety of homophonic idioms (such as picturing a blue-colored prince when she hears "blueprints"). Both text and illustrations are cute and fun, though a few of them are difficult/a bit mismatched for kids (sheep gambling on the lawn or the head on Dad's beer). A good choice to pair with "Dear Deer" by Gene Barretta.

[Michael Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool! I enjoyed the idea that children take things literally and do not always understand expressions and their meanings. It was very sarcastic and humorous and I believe would be very entertaining for children. Also, the illustrations were amazing and detailed! The humor is what sold it for me, overall!

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book about how idiomatic/common phrases can be confusing to a child. Written by Fred Gwynne (Herman Munster) this is a fun and innovative book; was really happy to come across this at the most recent library book sale! This would be a very good book to read with a small child to help them get a more nuanced feel for English.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful wordplay with homophones, written from the perspective of a child who doesn't understand them. I was enjoying myself too much to make a thorough analysis, so I'd like to take another look at some point.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is delightful.

I have a weakness for puns anyway, but seeing this is dedicated to his daughter, and based on the things she heard, that makes it very touching, and I had no idea that Fred Gwynne was such a good artist.

[Kathleen]

Just be sure to read this before sharing. There was one that I did not understand and another that was not appropriate for school. I am sure that it is a result of language changing and what is acceptable in schools today.

[Amy Schmelzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The universe wanted me to read this book. Never heard of it before and then I stumbled across it twice this weekend.

English is a funny language and this book by Herman Munster himself plays on that. Would be great for a young reader who loves plays on words.