"The King's Commissioners" By: Aileen Friedman

Grade Level: 2nd Grade and above
Rating: 3/5
Illustrations By: Susan Guevara

I thought that "The King's Commissioners" used Math in a fun and interesting way to teach elementary students. The story is about a King with many Royal Commissioners that take care of all his problems for him. However, one day he decides that he needs to get organized and count all of the Royal Commissioners. Each of two Royal Advisers count the Royal Commissioners using different methods, and his daughter explains to him the methods used. I think that while this book uses good methods for grouping together large numbers I also think that some of the messages should not be portrayed as acceptable to young students. This book suggests that it is acceptable to distribute chores that you do not want to do yourself to others. While the King does choose to finally "organize" his commissioners this only consists of counting them rather than creating a system that allows him to contribute to his own responsibilities. The majority of the illustrations show the King just sitting on his thrown. This book promotes laziness to young children especially when the King suggests that since his daughter is so good at grouping the Commissioners that she be established the "Royal Commissioner Counter" and her response is that she would rather be a princess. This implies that she would rather have everything done for her by a Royal Commissioner than have any form of responsibility herself. Also there is no repercussions to the King for having others do his work for him even if they are the most simple tasks such as the "Miss- Matched Socks Commissioner". I think this book devalues the concept of hard work. If I did use this book in my classroom it would be used to have my students plan out their own schedules in order to organize their time better so that they are capable of completing all of their expected tasks successfully.