What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Looking for a children's picture book that I read in the late 80's. It was about three princes that each had to complete a difficult task to become king. One had to jump over a tall tower. Another had to get out of a round room w/o windows. I believe that the princes were helping each other complete the tasks. The illustrations were mainly black and white or monochrome.

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The Three Princes Of Serendip by Elizabeth Jamieson Hodges? There's a cover image on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Three-Princ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thre... The Wikipedia article doesn't sound like the OP's story, but maybe a kids version of it?

Maybe something by Benjamin Elkin? The King's Test has the round room test. He also wrote The Big Jump, which I think has the jump the high tower test.

The Big Jump and Other Stories for Amanda's suggestion.

Hi there, I'm not sure of your specific tale, but I just wanted to add that three princes having to complete assignments to become king is a recurring theme in traditional fairy tales.

Andrew Lang's Colored Fairy Tale collections would be a good place to start. Once you find the tale you can start looking at the reiterations for your stand-alone picture book.

Also, there is a similar tale in The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights that you may come across - it has several titles, but the gist of this one is the three brothers are competing for their cousin's hand in marriage, and the task is travel abroad and bring back the most fantastic item. This is not your story - if that helps you any in searching. Good luck!

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I am fairly sure that The Three Princes Of Serendip is not the one that I am looking for, but it could be The Big Jump and Other Stories. I will try to get ahold of the book to verify.

Christie, did The Big Jump and Other Stories turn out to be your book?

Yes, it was one of them. I think that I was remembering two separate books by the same author: The Big Jump and The Kings Wish. Both were a collection of stories by Benjamin Elkin.

Links for Christie's books: The Big Jump and Other Stories and King's Wish, The by Benjamin Elkin.

Wow, I just started a search for The King's Wish - all I could remember was the boys trapped in the room. I thought there was a window up high maybe. Glad I looked at the solved threads! I went back and deleted my other one. I'm so happy to have found this book again!

Hooray! So glad you found it!