King Crow Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1995 ISBN: 978-0-5175-9634-0, hardcover

King Crow

written by Jennifer Armstrong
illustrated by Eric Rohmann

Rich, dramatic paintings adorn this tale of treachery and kindness rewarded. Wise and generous King Cormac is envied by his neighbor, evil King Bregnant, who wages war on Cormac. After the battle, Cormac awakes to find himself alone and blind. Despairing, Cormac nevertheless shows compassion to a crow with an arrow in his wing and receives the crow's promise of future aid; later, when Cormac is imprisoned, the crow brings news of Bregnant’s actions, enabling Cormac to unnerve his captors with his apparent powers of prophecy. In a final confrontation, Cormac predicts Bregnant's imminent doom, and the terrified tyrant stumbles and falls to his death. Traditional folkloric elements enhance the drama and mystery of this tale, giving it a classic feeling. Rohmann's handsome paintings add to this with sweeping layouts, striking compositions, and darkly burnished colors. —Booklist

“I was sent a good story written by Jennifer Armstrong, but I didn’t do it justice. The sobering tale of kings and the hubris of power is over-illustrated. Early in my career I did not understand that more is not always better. In an effort to be something like cinematic in book form, I forgot about the story and made individual images that don’t hold together as a book.

From this project I learned that a picture book is not a just collection of paintings, but images that tell a story through the ebb and flow of the narrative.”