WILLIAM THE CURIOUS: Knight of the Water Lilies

Random House, 1997. 1st Edition 2nd Printing. Hardcover. As New/As New. Charles Santore color illus.. CONDITION: UNREAD, but not quite perfect, 1997 Random House hardcover (pictorial boards) & dust jacket, first edition, second printing. PROBLEM: The binding is tight enough but uneven - stuff happens sometimes in the publishing process, I guess. Beautiful color illustrations by the great Charles Santore. Decorated end pages. CONTENT: The Queen of the Land of Far and Wide demands perfection--absolute perfection--in all that she surveys from her windows, high in her perfect castle. She orders her minions to move mountains and to change the colors of the forest--but, alas, she is never satisfied. One day she makes a decree--all imperfect things in the castle must be thrown out of the windows. Soon the lovely, lily-blanketed moat below becomes a slimy, polluted junk pile. Blinded by her quest for perfection, the queen does not realize the havoc she has wrought on the harmony of her kingdom, and no one dares to tell her--except one very small and very brave frog named William. Here is the story of how he opens the queen's eyes, to see that nature, in and of itself, is perfect. Acclaimed artist Charles Santore's sumptuous illustrations and provocative "environmental fairytale" will have readers of all ages cheering the triumph of the courageous frog.