The Judge: An Untrue Tale

This is a weird and rather dark book. A judge hears five cases in a row where the prisoners brought to him describe the imminent arrival of a horrible monster, whereupon he throws them in jail for lying, even though they are all telling the same story. At the end, the horrible monster enters the courtroom and apparently devours the judge, and then the prisoners are suddenly free to go?

It rhymes; it's got that going for it. They're okay rhymes, but without much meter. At least the rhymes don't seem forced. It's just weird. It seems to be trying to say that the world is just and that the truth will win out in the end, but its real message boils down to: Authority figures are unreasonable and won't believe you. There's not much to it. The illustrations are kind of silly. It's pretty basic.