A review of The King's Conniption by Rita Pomade
Published on July 3, 2025
Calliope is handmaiden to the Queen, and when her employer suddenly announces that the King is having a conniption, it sends the girl into a tizzy. What is she to do? Who should she tell? And, most importantly, just what is a conniption, anyway?
The King’s Conniption
Rita Pomade
Illustrated by Jonathan Burrello
Self Published
$13.99
paper
32pp
9798300810368
The zany, wonderfully cacophonic black-and-white illustrations by Jonathan Burrello add a layer of energy and excitement to the storytelling, showing the strength that one small child can possess even when overshadowed by grownups. There’s an important message in The King’s Conniption about what lies behind closed doors, and who we are when all the layers of pomp and ceremony are peeled away.
“There’s a little of the King in all of us!” the King’s Advisor tells Calliope, and The King’s Conniption reminds us that there’s a little of Calliope in all of us, too. mRb
Tina Wayland holds an MA in Creative Writing from Concordia, winning the department’s McKeen Award in 2021 and 2023. She’s published in such places as carte blanche, Headlight, yolk, LBRNTH, and forthcoming in Scrivener, as well as longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize and shortlisted for Room Magazine’s Short Forms Contest. Tina is currently writing a book about her Lithuanian grandmother, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Hi Tina,
Thank you so much for your positive and insightful review of The King’s Conniption. I was delighted to see it included in this edition of the MRB. I’m looking forward to reading your book of stories about your Lithuanian grandmother. I,too, had a lithuanian grandmother, but I never met her. Maybe I will through learning about yours. And congratulations on your role as Collection Curator the new addition to the QWF. program The books you selected were well=picked.