School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-- In this expanded version of the King Midas story, a magician named Nandan, himself bewitched, helps teach the king a lesson by endowing him with the power to transform everything to gold. When the power goes awry and he has turned both his dog and his daughter into gold, a distraught King Midas desperately seeks to undo the spell. The tale acts as a prelude to a fantasy adventure, which is where the plot grows thinner and weaker. Midas must now find the River Cijam, whose magical properties will de-spell his hands. This quest involves an evil witch, her cat, and a dragonlike creature called a Mumbo. Banks's chatty, effusive, humorous prose style gives the story a vaguely contemporary feel, but provides very little dramatic tension or suspense. The plot plods on with all ending happily-ever-after, and the Mumbo taking up residence at the palace. The illustrations do nothing to dispell the impression that the story could easily translate into a full-length animated cartoon. --Corinne Camarata, Port Washington Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The human obsession with unbridled wealth is timeless, and in this retelling of the Midas tale, the king of that name has it bad. As in the myth, Midas sates his lust for gold but turns his beloved daughter into a lifeless gold statue. The treacherous journey he undertakes to bring her back to life is an odyssey of self-evaluation, and the inevitable discovery that life is more precious than riches is rather more hard-won than in traditional fairy tales. In Banks's masterly hands, Midas's classic character flaws are blended with contemporary human foibles to create a wonderfully vulnerable tragic hero. By offering Midas a meaningful escape from his misery through his daughter's love, Banks gets to the heart of the legend while fleshing out the story with first-rate adventure. This first American edition is a revision of the version published in the U.K. in 1976. Ages 8-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
The classic tale is retold in a humorous fantasy carrying a thoughtful message. King Midas is involved in a quest to rid himself of his self-inflicted curse. With the help of a dragon, Midas finally outwits a witch and restores himself and another enchanted man to their former, yet wiser, selves. From HORN BOOK 1992, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
