cover image The Princess and the Packet of Frozen Peas

The Princess and the Packet of Frozen Peas

Tony Wilson, illus. by Sue deGennaro. Peachtree, $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-56145-635-2

Prince Henrik yearns for a girl who likes hockey and camping, but his older brother, Hans, insists that only a “real” princess who’s “very beautiful and very sensitive” will do. Someone like Hans’s wife, Eva, who passed the pea-under-the-mattresses-test with flying colors, but whose sensitivity really amounts to being a self-important whiner. Will Henrik find true love with his own version of the test, which involves frozen peas and a sleeping bag? And will anyone be surprised that the winner is his old pal Pippa, who’s sporty but not posh and “has a lovely gap between her two front teeth”? This story has indie rom-com written all over it (think The Royal Tenenbaums). Whether children warm to the book’s laid-back vibe, Wilson’s reportorial prose and deGennaro’s hipster naïf sketches give this tale of unconventional princes and princesses an authenticity that not all stories in this mold possess. There are plenty of boys who would enjoy hanging out with gangly, always-game Pippa, and just as many girls who would be happy to emulate her. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)