The Princess in Black (2015)
Written By: Shannon Hale and Dean Hale
Genre: Children’s Chapter Book
Pages: 96 pages (Hardcover)
Series: Princess in Black (Book 1)
Publisher: Candlewick
Why I Chose It: My three-year-old was doing a reading challenge through school and I was looking for something a little longer to read to her besides her normal picture books. I’ve had these on the shelf for a while waiting for her to be old enough for chapter books so I figured we’d give them a try.
The premise:
Who says princesses don’t wear black? When trouble raises its blue monster head, Princess Magnolia ditches her flouncy dresses and becomes the Princess in Black!
Princess Magnolia is having hot chocolate and scones with Duchess Wigtower when… Brring! Brring! The monster alarm! A big blue monster is threatening the goats! Stopping monsters is no job for dainty Princess Magnolia. But luckily Princess Magnolia has a secret—she’s also the Princess in Black, and stopping monsters is the perfect job for her! Can the princess sneak away, transform into her alter ego, and defeat the monster before the nosy duchess discovers her secret? From award-winning writing team of Shannon and Dean Hale and illustrator LeUyen Pham, here is the first in a humorous and action-packed chapter book series for young readers who like their princesses not only prim and perfect, but also dressed in black.
Spoiler Free!
Discussion: “And now for something completely different!” I know chapter books are way outside my normal for Speculative Chic, but I needed a change of pace. And I find myself way more interested in good children’s fiction as my daughter gets older and I look for more and more books to shape her life. That might sound a bit melodramatic but considering five minutes after we finish a new book, she’s off acting out parts of it, I think it’s entirely accurate. Speaking of, I now have to come up with a black mask and cape so she can fully become…the Princess in Black!
I think it should tell you everything you need to know if I say I’ve had to read The Princess in Black every night for a week and I’m still not tired of it. It was an instant hit in our house, with both my three-year-old and my husband. There are plenty of books that we *cough* hide *cough* because the adults really don’t want to read them again (that stupid cat in his stupid hat has ruined my life on so many levels). But half fairytale princess and half superhero, The Princess in Black is funny enough to keep everyone entertained. Like really really funny. I think my favorite is Frimplepants the Unicorn who has his own alter ego as Blacky, the Princess in Black’s faithful pony!
I’m definitely not an expert on chapter books. This is the first one we’ve tried in my house. But this book seems to shine in that murky zone between picture book and those text heavy books for advanced elementary school readers. With enough pictures and an engaging and funny story, I can read it to my preschooler who’s only just starting to write her own name. She follows the story well enough that I caught her “reading” it to herself this morning complete with plot points and monster conflict. And I’m hearing certain phrases like “high-jumping the castle wall” and “fly, Blacky, fly!” around my house enough that I think the Hales’ use of word and idea repetition is spot on. For other parents who are looking for reference, it takes me about fifteen minutes to read through the first book, so it’s a little longer than a picture book, but not a multiple session time commitment where your distracted toddler has to remember what happened the last time you managed to get them to sit still long enough to read.
And for kids who are just starting to read for themselves the chapters are short enough to get through and still provide a sense of accomplishment and progression of story line. I write young adult, not really children’s, so I can really appreciate the Hales’ ability to tell a compelling story in such a short amount of time, with such tiny segments to work with. It’s a lot harder than it looks.
And of course, as the mom of a girl I am completely on board with the idea of a heroine who can be both a prim and perfect princess AND a monster-butt-kicking ninja. At the same time.
In Conclusion: There’s a whole series featuring Princess Magnolia and her alter ego, the Princess in Black. We already love the first two in which Princess Magnolia tries to keep her monster fighting identity secret from a nosy duchess and then again from all her princess friends at her perfect princess party. And I may have ordered the third book for my daughter for Easter (shh, nobody tell her). It’s sitting next to me on the desk and I’m having a really really hard time not reading it myself before I give it to her.
YAAAS This series is great!
Also if you need another great chapter book series that isn’t a lot of text to wade through, Bad Kitty is hysterical. Best one is Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray.