Princess in Boxland

Marie knows she is a princess because of the ""unusual things that happened to her,"" and when she sees a picture of a red umbrella on the outside of a box, another escapade begins. Umbrella in hand, the girl visits Boxland, a place filled with cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes, some piled high with apples or worn as clothing, others standing empty, inviting and alluring. There Marie meets a king and queen, distracts a royal lion, sails in a paper boat, then heads homeward over a path of ""boxes full of adventures she'd never even dreamed of."" German author/artist Szekessy's fluid prose propels Marie's hectic progress through Boxland, maintaining a light humor all the way to the end, when ""even a princess has to get home on time."" Marie is shown as squat, with the proportions of a gnome. She and other figures and props are neatly rendered against vibrantly colored, thickly textured backgrounds, a contrast that reinforces the interplay between imagination and reality in the story. Ages 4-7. (June)