PRINCESS ELLA AND THE MISSING KITTENS

Waldecker’s picture book teaches young readers that looks don’t indicate personality.

Ella is a blond princess, and she loves kittens. When Ella gets into town, excited to visit kittens at the pet store, a crowd is gathered outside; there is a massive hole in the side of the building, and the kittens are missing. Ella begins to look for clues and finds a trail of huge footprints leading away from the scene. Bravely, she follows them all the way through the forest and up a mountain until she reaches the mouth of a cave. Ella enters the cave and sees a huge troll playing happily with the kittens and rolling around on the floor. Realizing that she has misjudged the troll because of what he looks like, Ella softens (“I’m sorry I was afraid of you at first, Mr. Troll”). The troll fixes the shop and returns to his mountaintop cave with a kitten of his very own. The illustrations by Geyer are cute and colorful, and the full backgrounds set the scene and engage the reader (it’s a unique touch to have a female character in a fairy tale with a small dagger on her belt). It would be nice to see more racial representation in the background characters.

A whimsical story with a mystery to solve.