Synopsis
This princess may be lost, but she's not helpless. Swept overboard on the way to meet the prince her parents have chosen for her to marry, a princess seizes the opportunity to decide her own future and turns a twist of fate into a wildly entertaining adventure. Rafe Martin and Kimberly Bulcken Root combine their award-winning literary and visual talents in this energetic and original celebration of storytelling, imagination, and destiny.
Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root.
Children's Literature
This fairy tale opens in two distant kingdoms where a prince and princess are each informed of pending marriages arranged by their parents. Neither is happy with the prospect, and they each vow to find a way around this tradition in order to marry for love. The prince agrees to marry his parent's choice only if his father can find a candidate who can tell him a story with a surprise ending. The princess is not so lucky; she is put onto a ship to be taken to her future groom without her consent. During a great storm, the princess falls overboard, but survives by clinging to a trunk and eventually washes up on land. Coincidentally, the kingdom she lands in is the home of the same prince she had been promised to by her father. The prince and princess find each other under their own terms, and they fall in love. Also, she is able to tell an amazing story that entrances the prince and leads to their marriage. This story contains the traditional elements of a fairytale and is accompanied by pencil and watercolor illustrations filled with detail. 2001, G.P. Putnam's Sons, $15.99. Ages 6 to 11. Reviewer: Carol Lynch