Catalina and the King's Wall

When Catalina overhears the king planning to build a wall, she fears her family won’t ever be able to visit. Catalina tricks the king into building walls that droop, drip, swirl, and swoosh away. But now the king demands an impenetrable wall. Luckily, Catalina has the perfect ingredients to bake up a family reunion!   

Idaho author Patty Costello shares this beautiful and timely story to initiate conversations with kids about issues of inclusivity and compassion.

Midwest Book Review (April 2018):

"Catalina and the King's Wall" is a delightful new/old tale about a creative solution to fear of differences. "In a not so faraway kingdom," Catalina was a skilled baker for the King who loved all her cookies. The King was childish and very whimsical, and difficult to please. He decided for no reason to build a wall between his kingdom and the nearby kingdom, which frightened Catalina, because her family lived there. Catalina decided to suggest to the King to have the wall built of her favorite icing. Of course, it melted when the rain came. When the king ordered a new wall to be built, Catalina suggested a wall built of her father's favorite sprinkles, (which blew away in the wind). Ordered to build another wall, Catalina came up with her best idea so far: A gigantic wall of cookie dough! This wall did not melt in the rain or blow away in the wind. But Catalina, knowing the king's weakness for her cookies, slyly suggested that he take a nibble of the wall. Because of his gluttony, the king could not stop himself until he had eaten every single bite of the giant cookie dough wall. He lay down and burped a giant burp, while Catalina happily met her family with hugs and a fresh batch of her favorite cookies, saying "That's the way the cookie crumbles!" Delicious, edible looking illustrations with sly images of little Russian nesting dolls decorate the pages of this modern fable of "Catalina and the King's Wall," a homily warning against greed and separatism that speaks to today's early fluency and adults as well."

Foreword Reviews, (May-June 2018):

"When a foolish king decides to build a wall to keep people from a neighboring kingdom away, his royal baker dreams up a delicious solution. Catalina is a lighthearted parody full of colorful confections. Innovative artwork in a riot of watercolor shades depicts the crafty baker as she whips up gobs of dough, gallons of icing, and miles of rainbow sprinkles, outsmarting the king just in time for a visit from her family one kingdom over."