The Queen On Our Corner by Lucy Christopher

This has to be one of our favourite books in the house. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is so important to instil in children. It talks of kindness, and not to judge based on appearances.

Wow! What a lovely story!
We love story’s like this, that show culture, diversity, and show a different side of the world. Matthew had sooo many questions while reading this book. The first one was “why doesn’t anyone speak to her, what has she done wrong”. Then “why doesn’t she have a home”
As we read the story we could see that the queen had battled some hard times in her life and had moved around a bit, and now she didn’t have a place to call home anymore. “That’s so sad that she has no home, we are lucky to have a house” Matthew said.
As the story goes on and the fire breaks out the queen shouts and wakes everyone from the houses. “It’s lucky she was keeping watch” Matthew said. “That’s why we blow our candles out at night”
At the end the village come together to thank the queen for saving them, and they all build her a house. “That’s so lovely that they help her get her own house, she has a bed now to sleep” Matthew says with a very large smile and looked very relieved.
At the end there is a lovely story from Lucy and her inspiration for the story, Matthew said “ this is a lovely story, I can’t believe how lucky we are, next time I see a queen in the street I’m going to try help them too”

I read this with my 5 year old and was interrupted on countless occasions - she was full of questions! She was intrigued by the story and wanted to know why nobody took any notice of the lady on the corner and why nobody wanted to listen to her stories, so it did start some important conversations which I feel were beautifully conveyed in the story.

The illustrations are stunning and bring the story together to make a wonderful book to treasure for many years ❤

My 7 year old really enjoyed this book and gave us lots to talk about. I think it tackles the theme of homelessness at a way younger readers can understand and connect with. It’s also has a wonderful happy ending which I wish for all of the worlds Kings and Queens.

‘The Queen on our Corner’ is such a beautiful book and very different from anything else we own, which is part of why I like it so much. I’ve been consciously trying to pick books that represent different people, cultures and situations to broaden our understanding of the world and encourage empathy. Homelessness is not something that my girls have any experience of - we live in a small country village and, with the pandemic, we haven’t ventured far, so it’s not something I’ve broached with them. My girls (5&3) didn’t understand that this book was about homelessness - they took it at face value and so thought it was about an actual queen and her adventures. It was great for opening up a discussion with my eldest about what homelessness is, why people might be homeless and how it can happen to anybody - ‘It’s easy to lose a palace… Easier than you might think.’ I love that we see the ‘queen’ through the little girl’s eyes: the hero who has had countless adventures and who protects the street. The author has done an amazing job of showing us how special the queen is, and how everyone has a story to tell if we would only take the time to listen.

Both my girls enjoyed the story and really love the illustrations, and I feel the same. I highly recommend this book and feel it is one we should all have on our bookshelf.