Princess Unlimited

When copper-haired Princess Susan’s parents fill their daughter’s room with “sparkles and pretty dresses” (“A princess needs frills,” says the pink-skinned king. “They help her look fancy,” agrees the brown-skinned queen), their decision leaves no funds to fight a flying, fiery dragon that is laying waste to the kingdom. Indeed, the townspeople’s weaponry consists of “hedgehogs and drinking straws.” So Princess Susan joins forces with a straight-talking white scullery maid named Eleanor, and using sparkles to temporarily blind the dragon, they bring it down. When the beast turns out to be both friendly (its puppy eyes are irresistible) and as entrepreneurial as the girls, the trio launches the Dragon Fire Network, a utility company powered by dragon breath. After selling “three thousand two hundred and ninety-four Dragon Fire Network subscriptions, plus ten one-week trials,” as Princess Susan tells her parents, the kingdom’s coffers refill, and the king and queen gain a new respect for their daughter’s talents. In a tale that mixes business with heroics, Weinstein’s (Lyric McKerrigan, Secret Librarian) text is full of determination, and Figueroa’s (We Wait for the Sun) art has the compositional verve and plucky characterizations of classic Disney animation. Ages 4–7. (Nov.)