Title: The Princess and the Pea
Author: Janet Stevens
Genre: Animals / Royalty / Fairy Tale / Fantasy
Year Published: 1982
Year Read: 1990 (Re Read: 2018)
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Source: Purchased
Content Rating: Ages 4+ (Nothing Objectionable)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
The story starts off with the prince wanting to marry
a princess and his mother, the Queen, decided that they should search for a
real princess (much like herself) and they ended up traveling around to world
to find a princess. Unfortunately, all
the princesses that they came across did not meet the Queen’s expectations and
they ended up going back to their kingdom without a princess. One evening however, a terrible storm came
across the kingdom and it was during this time that a wandering visitor came
into the kingdom, telling the king and queen that she is a real princess,
despite her untidy appearance. The Queen
is of course skeptical about the visitor and she decided to let the visitor
stay in the castle for the night.
However, when the Queen set up the visitor’s bed, she put a small pea on
the bed and then puts twenty mattresses on top of the pea. The Queen did all this to see if the visitor
is a real princess as she claims that a real princess would have such delicate
skin that she could feel a pea underneath all of those mattresses.
Will
the (supposed) princess pass this test?
Read
this book to find out!
Now, I have to tell you that part of the reason why
this version of the classic fairy tale has a special place in my heart is
because it was the very first version of the fairy tale I had ever read,
therefore being the one to introduce me to the story of “The Princess and the Pea!” Janet Stevens had done a fantastic job
at both writing and illustrating this classic fairy tale as the story and
artwork were both beautiful and cute to read through! I loved the way that Janet Stevens wrote this tale as it was quite an adorable read and
I really liked the scenes where the Queen and her son searched across the land
to find a real princess for the Prince to marry as the Queen’s expectations
were quite hilarious such as a real princess “can play soft music on three
instruments at once” or “a real princess can skip across the lawn without
bending the grass.” Janet Stevens’ artwork is truly dazzling to look at as I loved the
fact that all the main characters are animal characters, which added to the
creative nature of this story. I really
loved the appearances of the royal family themselves as the king and the prince
are lions while the queen is a tiger and I never once questioned about how can
a tiger and a lion have a lion son together (because in stories like these,
those questions do not matter as long as the story is good)!
Overall, “The
Princess and the Pea” is a truly fantastic fairy tale that children both
young and old will definitely enjoy! I
would recommend this book to children ages four and up since there is nothing
inappropriate in this book.
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I used to love this one when I was a kid. Thanks for taking me back to a simpler time!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteI love this story!! I need to get back into reading some of my childhood favorites! :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome!
Delete