This is a book for reading and rereading. The illustrations are muddy and smudged—fitting for their coal town setting—and reveal their details only upon closer perusal. The text, capturing the simple, straightforward voice of the boy telling his story, likewise holds subtle truths awaiting discovery. And the two together unveil textures of friendship, loneliness, belonging, and the trials and triumphs that shape a life. A poignant, hopeful meditation of a book. ( )

Showing children that you can always find home no matter where you are.

Being far away from the only place that he felt at home, a young boy is longing for his home. His elderly neighbor, Mr. Evans enjoys watching and racing pigeons, the only thing that reminds the boy of home. Through what he looses, he finds in racing the pigeons. ( )

King of the Sky follows the story of a young immigrant boy. He is having a hard time feeling as though he is home in a new place. That is, until he finds comfort in a an elderly man and his racing pigeons.
Nicola Davies has written a wonderful story about being in unfamiliar places and finding how you belong there. Very well written and beautifully illustrated by Laura Carlin. The pictures in the book capture how a child would feel in these situations. Pages where he was feeling down were very grey, dark and monotone. However pages where he felt joy, acceptance or excitement were brighter. We even see the same scenes depicted in different colors based on the emotions which are registered. I very much enjoyed this book and think it would be great for a read aloud. ( )

A young Italian immigrant, newly arrived in Wales, finds the gray, rainy landscape around him alien and unfriendly. The little houses that "huddled on the humpbacked hills," the chimneys that smoked, the streets that smelled of mutton soup and coal dust, the unfamiliar words in everyone's mouths - all of these things together, tell the boy: "This is not where you belong." Then he befriends old Mr. Evans, a retired miner who keeps pigeons - birds which remind the boy of his home. Bonding over their shared interest in pigeon racing, the old man and the boy become particularly invested in Re Del Cielo - King of the Sky - a beautiful specimen with a snow-white head, whom Mr. Evans believes has the making of a champion. When King of the Sky is entered in a race from Rome to Wales, the question of his success or failure ends up holding great significance...

It's easy to see why King of the Sky was chosen as one of "The New York Time's Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2017!" English illustrator Laura Carlin's mixed media artwork is immensely expressive, capturing the emotional register of each scene perfectly with her impressionistic figures. I particularly loved the two-page spread depicting the flock of pigeons in flight, as well as her use of a more limited color range, when the characters are discussing something traumatic, such as war. All that said, although this is a very beautiful book, what really made the reading experience extraordinary for me was Welsh author Nicola Davies' story, which moved me to tears on more than one occasion. Her language is expressive, often very beautiful - I loved the image, quoted above, of "humpbacked hills!" - and most importantly, emotionally evocative. One really gets a feeling for the grayness, not just of the hills around the boy-narrator, but of his soul, as he considers this seemingly unwelcoming world. The slow opening up toward a more joyful sense of belonging in the story is mirrored by the poignant sense that loss, in the form of the weakening Mr. Evans, is still with the boy, that perhaps his joy and sorrow go hand in hand, and always will.

In sum: a powerful picture-book, one I would recommend to those looking for deeply felt children's stories that address themes of loneliness and alienation, friendship and solitude, the human connection to the world around us, and the immigrant experience. ( )