The Secret Lives of Princesses

This generous, large-format contribution to the library of princess reference works pushes into middle-reader range. The work of a French team (both making their U.S. debut), it features droll copy, sly sidebars (on princess-related topics that range from four-poster beds to parasols), and theatrically lit princesses painted from all sorts of inventive angles. Lechermeier supplies biographies for more than 20 fictional princesses—Princess Tangra-la, who "dresses wildly, without care, in secondhand clothes"; Princess Paige, who "divides her days into chapters and dreams up titles for each one"; and Princess Sticky-Fingers, who "cracks safes with great style"—as well as notes about princess life ("A princess's tears are prized the world over.... Like invisible ink, they are used to compose the sweetest songs"). Dautremer's Princess Tangra-la dances with such abandon that her socks, watch, and jewelry go flying; other spreads show princesses defeating armies with barrages of tiny, cutout words or bicycling delicately along telephone wires. There's even an index. It's too long to be covered in one bedtime, and parents of princess fans will be forced to check for flashlights under the covers. Ages 7–up. (June)