The Chinese Emperor's New Clothes by Ying Chang Compestine

Everyone has heard of the story of the Emperor's New Clothes, but it is not true.  The real story is the one found in this cute picture book.  The Emperor is a 9 year old boy who is worried about his people.  His adult advisers are cheating them out of food, money and clothing.  The Emperor knows he cannot confront them openly, so he devises a plan to expose them.  He has his loyal tailors make a set of clothes out of rice sacks, and tells the advisers that only those who are honest can see the beauty of the magical cloth. When the dishonest advisers praise the Emperor's new outfit, the Emperor agrees to have the tailors make clothes for the advisers.  The rest of the story goes as you might expect, with the advisers leaving the empire in shame.  I don't review picture books that often, but this is one I have chosen to do a video book talk on at work this week. It has received several starred reviews. I particularly like the little mouse and cricket that show up in most of the pictures.  It would be a fun one to read together with a child, or a 1-2 grade child could read it on their own. (2017)