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Kathryn's Reviews > The Princess and the Pea
The Princess and the Pea
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I love dollhouse furniture, I love paper dolls, I love creativity and so it's little wonder that I LOVE THIS BOOK!!! Lauren Child has created a splendid world for the Princess and Cast to inhabit and oh what fun it is! You see, the people are all paper cutouts with the most splendid fabrics and the most amusing expressions and such lively poses. They inhabit a very three-dimensional world, however, and this is formed chiefly with dollhouse furniture, from beds and chairs to teeny-tiny books to china teacups! But it doesn't stop there—for the princess lives in a treehouse and she goes on midnight wandering through a forest—so lots of scope for the imagination and Child's artistic talents here. The story is told in a very cute way, too--lots of little narrative interruptions like "you know how these fairy-tale princes are..." I loved it. Everything!!! One potential drawback for some readers might be that the characters' expressions sometimes look a tad gloomy or even angry—I don't think this was Child's intent but rather the style she was employing. Never-the-less, I think this is one not to be missed by anyone who loved paper dolls or dreamed of having a beautifully furnished dollhouse.
(Inside the back cover there is a good amount of detail on how the Child and the photographer went about creating the book, but alas I got this at the library and the dustjacket was taped down over half of it! I will probably be adding this to my personal library, though, so I look forward to reading more then.)
(Inside the back cover there is a good amount of detail on how the Child and the photographer went about creating the book, but alas I got this at the library and the dustjacket was taped down over half of it! I will probably be adding this to my personal library, though, so I look forward to reading more then.)
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
June 1, 2009
– Shelved
June 1, 2009
– Shelved as:
childrens-picture-books
June 1, 2009
– Shelved as:
fairytales-folktales-mythology
June 1, 2009
–
Finished Reading
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Lisa
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rated it 5 stars
Jun 01, 2009 12:00PM
I've had this on my to-read shelf for a while. My library doesn't have it, but some nearby libraries do. I think I will try inter-library loan. I'm definitely bumping this up. Great review!
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Oh, now I see what the problem was/is: My library does have it, in Spanish only, and because they have it, I can't get it from inter-library loan. I am not pleased. I'll find some way to read this, I hope.
I hope you all enjoy it and that I didn't over-exaggerate its charms. Lisa, I think that getting the Spanish version would be better than nothing at all; while it'd be a shame to miss out on the fun text, the illustrations really do make the book!
Chandra, I emailed my library and just read their reply and apparently there's a work around, which I am going to try. I'll be so happy if it does because this isn't the only time this has happened. If I can reserve an English language copy I should be reading this within a few weeks.
This sounds really neat and unique!
Chandra and All,I have a copy on reserve! It was such an easy work around that I'll have to remember because this has come up before and I know that it will again. When keying in author and title the trick is to key in the word English. (I'd thought putting in words not the title or author's name would confuse the system so I'd never done it.) Then, the book doesn't show because my library doesn't have it in English but when I go to the LINK+ system (our inter-library loan) the English language editions appear.
I should take out the Spanish language edition too and read it alongside to see how much I can understand and to improve my very basic Spanish, but I probably won't do that this time.
I'm really excited to read this version; I've recently read a few versions of this tale and this one looks special.
Chandra, Our library has budget issues and I estimate about 1 in 5 books I get are from inter-library loan because my city's library does not have them. I'm grateful for the access to other libraries but it's a scary proposition to use inter-library loan. Instead of 10¢ a day overdue fine, nothing for children's books, it's $1 a day and $115 for a lost book. Sometimes I have several hundred dollars worth of books checked out and my anxiety level definitely rises.
Chandra, Oh, that's so wonderful to have a little neighborhood library. We have branches so when I was young my branch did feel that way, even though it was right in San Francisco. That's great for you and Izzy/the family.
I'm so glad you will be able to get a copy of the book, Lisa. Gosh, I hope you won't be disappointed in it after all that effort!!! :-/
Kathryn, I'm reasonably sure that I'm going to love this book. Either way I now know how to use the LINK+ inter-library loan system to reserve English language books when my library has only foreign language editions. I've been reading quite a few versions of this tale and have enjoyed them all; this particular one really looks like my cup of tea. Thanks.
Yay! So glad my review got more people interested in this treasure of a book! :-)
Great review, Kathryn! Your description of the "illustrations" is perfect! Thanks for the recommendation, too;>
OK so I check out this book because of Kathryn! And I really enjoyed it. I think the illustrations are outstanding. So cute. I also thought the story was great, teaching people about manners and what a true princess is. Is this the author's only book?
Angie, Gosh no; she's written many: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/... . This one is particularly good though!
