This adventure by dusk-light will quickly become a bedtime favorite. The rhythmic, rhyming language flows as a read-aloud, and the story builds suspense with each turn of the page. Jack, a confident fellow sporting a yellow paper crown and a blanket for a royal robe, leads a procession of three. King Jack, along with Sir Zack and preschooler Caspar, set out to make a "mighty great fort." The great fort rises from rudimentary materials: a giant box, sheets, sticks and "a few broken bricks" (to hold down the fort's corners). Oxenbury's (There's Going to Be a Baby) step-by-step charcoal renderings prove that nothing goes to waste in the trio's project, and a full-color illustration reveals the battlement in all its glory. "Protect your king's castle from dragon attack!" King Jack shouts.
Suddenly, they're on a battlefield of fire-breathers. As Jack and Zack do battle with wooden sword and javelin, Caspar dangles a stick toward a benign-looking dragon's tail. Oxenbury gives a nod to Maurice Sendak with her beast-filled forest, Jack's crown and the cloth-draped castle akin to Max's throne among the Wild Things. In Bently's (A Lark in the Ark) smooth merging of the boys' real and fantasy worlds, "a giant came by and went home with Sir Zack," and another giant carries Caspar away. King Jack continues his solo struggle, despite goose-pimply sound effects (like the "skitter-scurry" of a mouse). A comforting conclusion depicts the young monarch safely tucked into bed. Bently and Oxenbury prove that the imagination makes riches of the simplest ingredients. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness