PRINCESSES ARE PEOPLE, TOO

In a double dose of puckishness from Morgenstern (Three Days Off, 2001, etc.), two spirited young princesses tackle personal issues. First, after bored, lonely Princess Yona, scion of impoverished royalty, finally discovers where all the other children are going every morning, she drags her moping parents out into the world to enroll her in school and to buy her a suitable wardrobe. Then bookish Princess Emma, afflicted by a maddeningly elusive itch on her back, rejects an array of shy, sly, and misguided suitors before realizing that, even though unpretentious Prince Ray can’t find the itch either, she likes the way he scratches. With Bloch’s (A Book of Coupons, 2001, etc.) small, freely drawn ink sketches to press tongue even more firmly into cheek, these episodes, originally published separately and in French, are sure pleasers for fans of James Thurber’s Many Moons (1990) or the princess tales of Gail Carson Levine. (Fiction. 8-10)