Olivier Tallec
THE KING AND NOTHING
The King and Nothing Text and illustration copyright © 2022 Olivier Tallec Translation copyright © 2025 Milky Way Picture Books
Original title: Le roi et Rien
Text and illustrations by Olivier Tallec © 2022, l’école des loisirs, Paris
All rights reserved.
Translation by Nick Frost and Catherine Ostiguy
Book design by Architexte, Brussels
Proofreading by Nick Frost
This edition published in 2025 by Milky Way Picture Books, an imprint of Comme des géants inc. Varennes, Quebec, Canada.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written consent of the publisher or a license The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright license, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777. Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec and Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Title: The king and nothing / Olivier Tallec; translation, Nick Frost and Catherine Ostiguy.
Other titles: Roi et rien. English
Names: Tallec, Olivier, author, illustrator. | Frost, Nick, translator. | Ostiguy, Catherine, translator. Description: Translation of: Le roi et rien.
Identifiers: Canadiana 20240014421 | ISBN 9781990252389 (hardcover) Classification: LCC PZ7.T17 Ki 2025 | DDC j843/.92—dc23
ISBN: 978-1-990252-38-9
Printed and bound in China
Milky Way Picture Books
38 Sainte-Anne Street Varennes, QC J3X 1R5 Canada
www.milkywaypicturebooks.com
We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada.
We gratefully acknowledge for their financial support of our publishing program the Canada Council for the Arts and the Government of Canada.
Olivier Tallec
THE KING AND NOTHING
Translated into English by Nick
Frost and Catherine Ostiguy
There once was a king who had everything.
And when I say “everything,” I mean everything: caterpillars on bicycles, bicycles with caterpillar wheels, elephants without trunks, storm clouds that refused to make lightning, caramel-flavored ice skates…
He was truly an avid collector of things.
Every day, he would start new collections that he would spend hours organizing, classifying, and numbering.
The king lacked almost nothing.
Or, more accurately, he lacked Nothing.
Where could he possibly find Nothing?
He’d always been told that you can find anything in books, so surely they would also be a good place to find Nothing.
But the king quickly realized that although he had millions of books, their pages were always filled with something: a prince in love, different ways to repair a spaceship, or simple recipes for French-fry cakes.
Decidedly, Nothing was not hiding in his library.
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