Knights and Princesses today, and a lovely line-up of books, with a list of alternates and second-stringers.
Reading Lists:
Storytime:
The Princess Knight (a bit long, but we managed)
King Jack and the Dragon
The Bravest Knight
Summer Reading:
The Princess Knight
Princess Grace
Walter the Baker
Pubdata and Reviews:
The Princess Knight
Cornelia Funke, illustrated by Kerstin Meyer, translated by Anthea Bell
ISBN: 0439536308
Line drawings of spunky characters. Violetta is trained in knighthood, and the King is shocked when she acts on it.
Violetta is the youngest royal child and after raising three Princes to be virtuous and powerful knights, the King sees no reason to change tacks, and raises Violetta the same way. By training at night in secret, she masters the challenges despite being small and frail, and fights under a pseudonym to win her own hand in marriage, handily beating all comers (including her big brothers).
King Jack and the Dragon
Peter Bently, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
ISBN: 9780803736986
Oxenbury's signature drawings, and a trio of adorable and imaginative young knights and kings.
King Jack and his two loyal knights built the castle and the throne room, and had adventures all day, but Jack is left behind alone in the castle (a large packing box) when giants (parents) carry the knights off into the gathering darkness. Jack holds up as best he can, but he's menaced by a giant four-footed creature - a dragon! ... well, actually mom and dad with flashlights, fetching him off to bed himself. So cute.
The Bravest Knight
Mercer Meyer
ISBN: 9780803732063
A pugnacious page serves in a vividly imagined fantasy world until things get a little too grim.
Princess Grace
Mary Hoffman, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright & Ying-Hwa Hu
ISBN: 9780803732605
Grace of "Amazing Grace" fame appears once again, learning about real princesses.
Grace is back, and this time she's inspired to be a fairy-tale princess on her class float in the yearly parade - until she looks a little closer and realizes that wearing floaty non-specific dresses and waiting around to be rescued by a prince isn't very fun. Teacher comes to the rescue with stories of actual princesses, and of princesses from specific cultures and countries, inspiring the whole class to take the princess (and prince) idea and make it their own.
Walter the Baker
Eric Carle
ISBN: 0689800789
Walter screws up the Duchess's scone, so he's got until morning to create an impossible bread that ends up becoming the first pretzel.
This one is only somewhat shoehorned into the Princes and Princesses and Knights theme, but it does have a Duke and Duchess, and I falsely remembered Walter becoming Knighted at the end (he doesn't, sadly). But it's still a cute story, and a great "just so" origin for pretzels.
Second String:
Princess Me
Karma Wilson
ISBN: 9781416940982
A smidge too "pretty pretty princess" for a mixed-gender group, and also some of the qualities of princesshood are a little limiting and traditional. It's sweet and cute and mostly harmless, but just not enough to make the cut against something like Princess Grace.
A Frog Prince
Alix Berenzy
ISBN: 0805004262
Waaaaaaaaaaay too long. Illustrations are to die for, and the fairy tale is delightful, but there's no way I could get through that AND two other books, even for the older crowd.
The Princess and the Pig
Jonathan Emmett, illustrated by Poly Bernatene
ISBN: 9780802723345
A very close call, but I had read it recently in storytime, and wanted to read Walter the Baker for SRP.
The Princess and the Pea
Rachel Isadora
ISBN: 9780399246111
LOVED this African-inspired rendition of the Princess and the Pea, but decided to go with non-traditional fairy tales instead.
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