We thought we knew all there was to know about princesses; we thought they were practically part of the family, that nothing about them could surprise us any more. And then along come Rébecca Dautremer and Philippe Lechermeier with their poetry and their irreverence. They open up the floodgates of their imagination and we find ourselves face-to-face with a whole series of princesses, each one more batty than the next. But in these princesses the readers, big or small, can glimpse of trace of themselves.
Take the Princess Softie, a cousin of Sleeping Beauty, who never gets out of her pyjamas all day and spends the whole time lazing about on her four-poster bed. Then there’s Princess Zoulou Zazou who’s a bit of a swinger, just loves tasselled dresses and spends her nights gyrating to the beat of the tom-toms. Princess Capriciosa is a right little snob who never eats; she just nibbles at food and thinks nothing of asking the impossible. Princess Clerihew chatters like a magpie, has a mind like a butterfly and swears like a trooper. For, what’s more, the author quite rightly reminds those of us who might have forgotten that: “Even to this day, no one has found a way to make a princess keep her mouth shut. That’s just how things are.”
And don’t forget that this book is cram full of learned advice on how to recognise a real princess as well as tricks of the trade about how to manage princessly accessories such as a fan, for example. This book teaches us every last thing about princesses: their world, their fashion accessories, right down to their favourite meals. And did you know that tears from a princess’s eyes makes the perfect invisible ink for writing love letters?
The drawings, with their light, gentle touch, are full of comic detail and dovetail perfectly with Lechermeier’s lilting text. A real treat.
Latest news: World English rights have just been sold
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