Product Description

When a prince sets out to find a princess to marry, he soon discovers this is not a simple task. There is no shortage of so-called princesses, but how can he tell whether or not they are what they claim to be? Then one night, a great storm rages, there’s a knock on the palace gate, and the prince’s life is never the same.

Caldecott Honor–winning artist Rachel Isadora exquisitely illustrates this retelling of the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale and takes readers to a beautiful African setting—a first for the "true story" of a tiny pea that changed everything.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #686709 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2—Isadora drops her simplified and humorless retelling of Andersen's tale into an African setting without adding meaningful cultural context to this story of a prince who travels the continent looking for a wife. Africa is treated as one culture except for three spreads that show individual princesses. These spreads are wordless except for a phrase: "Iska Waran," "Selam," or "Jambo, Habari." No translation is provided in the body of the book, so readers only learn on the last page that the words mean "hello" in three different languages. Awkward phrasing like "What a sight the rain and the wind had made her look" slows the pace of the story. Isadora uses oil paints on palette paper and decorative print paper to interpret the story visually and infuses her art with exuberant color and stylized figures. The prince and his entourage appear as shadowy figures that contrast dramatically with the deep reds and oranges of a setting sun. The three princesses are vividly portrayed: one is covered in body tattoos and looks menacing, another has light skin and an elegantly long neck covered in multicolored jewelry, and a third is dark and heavy. Faces exhibit paint strokes and look flat with minimal expression. One effective spread shows the "real" princess perched on top of "twenty feather beds on top of the mattresses" as she complains to the king and queen that she is "black and blue all over." An additional purchase.—Kirsten Cutler, Sonoma County Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Andersen's classic, silly fairy tale gets an East African setting in this simple picture-book retelling with brightly colored oil-paint and cut-paper collage illustrations by Caldecott Honor winner Isadora. Many women would like to marry the prince, and he travels all over the world in search of a wife, but how will he find a real princess? When a bedraggled young girl arrives one night in a fearful storm and claims she is a princess, the royal family gives her a bed with one small pea under mounds of mattresses and featherbeds. When she gets up the next morning, bruised and sleepless, they know she is the real thing. The storm scene is confusing: which figure is the visitor? Otherwise, the European story works beautifully in the lush new setting with an all-black cast and clear, detailed layers everywhere, including necklaces, head cloths, fabrics, and kente cloth. Collage is the perfect medium to show the piled-up mattresses and feather beds, each one a different texture and pattern. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
An innovative interpretation of a timeless tale. Publishers Weekly

Customer Reviews

I adore this book
I've searched, hoped and contacted publishers about an African-American version of the Princess and the Pea. This book is so much more than that. It's beautiful and the story is rich. It's not just a typical story with the characters colored in brown. It's got culture in the characters, the design, and the content. I am truly thankful to Ms. Isadora for producing such a lovely book.

African American Princess
With so much emphasis on princesses these days, this story is the perfect foil for the wan pink varities. In a riot of color, this queen-to-be hops upon a bed of many quilts in African prints only to find the bed unsuited to a good night's sleep and hence wins the hand of the prince. Old tale, new award-winning graphics.

Check out this book
This is a very clever book and I found the style captivating. It is interesting how Ms. Isadora combines the African theme and the fun of the story all packaged in a classic story. Mr. Andersen would approve!