This charming children's picture book introduces the young reader to King Midas, who we are told is rich, kind, and somewhat foolish. The King and his daughter, Zoe live in a palace surrounded by a lush and famous rose garden. During one of their daily walks in the garden, they come across Silenus the satyr, hungover and sleeping among the rose bushes. Zoe and King Midas help Silenus who is a friend of the god, Dionysus. Suddenly, Dionysus descends from the sky, luxuriating in a fluffy, shimmering bed of clouds, holding a golden gimlet and wearing a crown of sumptuous, bright purple grapes. 

As a reward for helping Silenus, Dionysus grants King Midas one wish. Without hesitating, the King wishes that everything he touches be turned into gold. Dionysus challenges his request, but Midas insists upon it. His wish is granted, and at first he delights in transforming tables, his rose garden, and fountain into gold. When King Midas eats his dinner, however, he despairs when he turns his meal - a large leg of chicken, and wine – into solid gold. Saddest of all, he also transforms his daughter, Zoe into gold, who freezes mid-gesture into a rock-hard statue. 

Midas begs Dionysus to undo the wish. The God directs him to submerge himself in the nearby river (presumably the River Pactolus). Clutching Zoe, the King plunges them both into the water, and they emerge restored. The story concludes with a more contemporary image of people enjoying the gleaming stream, suggesting that King Midas is what gave the river its distinct golden hue. A small child walks in the foreground of the image alongside the stream, reading the very book we are also reading: King Midas's Golden Touch.

This version of the King Midas myth draws on Nathaniel Hawthorne's version from A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (1852) where the King's daughter, Zoe turns to gold when he touches her. This is what spurs Midas to want to undo the wish that Dionysus granted him, where everything he touches turns into gold. In Ovid's version, it is the King's more selfish despair at not being able to eat an elaborate meal placed that makes him want to undo the wish. While this aspect is in part retained in Jarman and Venturini's King Midas's Golden Touch where the King's chicken and wine are pictured as turning into solid gold, it is his daughter's unfortunate transformation that ultimately propels his desperate plea to undo the wish. Retaining this aspect of Hawthorne's rewriting casts Midas as a more likable, compassionate character, and makes Jarman and Venturini's version potentially more appropriate for the child reader. It also communicates the morale that familial relationships are more important than material objects and greed. 

Venturini's painterly, colorful illustrations employ classical iconography that ground the book in its historical specificity. For example, the palace pictured at the beginning of the book has some Doric elements such as columns and sloped stairs. Midas wears a classical Greek-style tunic with an elaborate necklace and crown. In the middle of the fountain is a statue of a dancing Greek servant pouring water from a ceramic pot. The tableware for King Midas's banquet is elaborately decorated pottery. All of these elements contribute to the book's enlivening of the classical myth of King Midas. The concluding page creates a playful contrast between this and modern life, where people are playing by the river wearing jeans, t-shirts and activewear, kicking around a soccer ball. This sense of the book's mythological history contrasted with the present invites a dynamic grasp of time for the young reader, and a talking point for caregivers with children about how mythological elements may appear in our everyday lives. 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, "The Golden Touch", A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, Windermere Edition, Chicago and New York: Rand McNally and Company, 1913, 63–88.

Skene Catling, Patrick, The Chocolate Touch, New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1952.