Little Prince Know It All

by Sheila Kelly Welch

Two popular themes -- pets and sibling rivalry -- come together in this slyly funny story about two little princes who compete to see who has the smarter pet.

Library Binding

First published July 15, 1998

About the author

Sheila Kelly Welch writes and illustrates for children of all ages. Her story, “The Holding-On Night,” published in Cricket, won the International Reading Association’s Short Story Award. Her most popular books are Little Prince Know-It-All and A Horse for All Seasons. Her middle-grade novel, The Shadowed Unicorn, was short-listed for the Prairie Pasque Award and was likened to Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia in a Booklist review. Her most recent novel, Waiting to Forget, was on Bank Street College and PA School Library Association Best Books lists. She also has two picture books published by the digital company, MeeGenius.

Sheila and her husband live in Illinois where they raised five sons and two daughters. Four of the children were adopted when they were of school age. Although she has two degrees from Temple University, she has learned more from her children than from any college course.

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather misleading title: the younger prince is not a "know-it-all," he's just a spoiled brat! The plot with the the "clever" pets made no sense to me in the context (and, incidentally, it saddened me to see animals portrayed as simply a point of sibling rivalry without any affection evinced for them) and did nothing to resolve the real issue of the parents' extreme favoritism.

[Aerin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story about siblings would be better if the plot didn't jumble itself halfway through. By the end, my kids understood why things happened, but they were a little confused for a while. It's a good story to check out from the library - an excellent book for early readers - and the illustrations capture the vibrant spirit of Welch's words.

[Prabhat sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little Prince- Know-it-all by Shiela Kelly Welch- Hindi Language translation by Arvind Gupta- Children’s Illustrated Colour Picture Book- The book narrates the story of two Princes- Kaleb and Omar. While Kaleb was silent, Omar wanted the best of all for himself in preference of Kaleb. Like best of pomegranate bread, brinjal dishes served in gold plates. Omar wanted the fastest horse to ride while Kaleb could ride on any horse from his father’s stable. Kaleb did not object and he did not compete in these trivial things with his brother. Omar said that they should pets. He proposed Tiger, elephant but both did not agree. So, they decided on pets of their choice. Omar opted for a pet dog while Kaleb opted for a parrot. Omar taught his dog to obey his instructions- bring the ball, open your mouth and drop the ball, jump etc. Kaleb trained his parrot to speak. Kaleb provided him with the best grains to pick but the parrot was silent. One day, King and his family had to travel to the palace of another King. Omar dressed up and came out with his pet dog. Khalid dressed and came with the parrot in a cage. The cage door was open. The parrot hit the door with his beak and came out in the open. Omar’s dog jumped on the parrot and caught his leg, Parrot shouted “leave me”. Omar’s dog obeyed and left the parrot’s leg. Both brothers left in the carriage. When the returned back, all found that Parrot was instructing the dog, “sit down, stand up, bring the ball, open your mouth, bring a biscuit from the kitchen,” and the dog was obeying. Kaleb was happy with his achievement. Coloured illustrations help the reader in relating to story. I have read the Hindi language translation of this book.