PRINCESSES CAN FIX IT!

A princess picture book fixed on smashing gender stereotypes.

Despite his pastel pink coiffure, the King in this story subscribes to rigid gender roles when it comes to his son and three daughters. (Like her father, one princess appears White while the other two have brown skin and dark hair; the prince is cued East Asian.) When the castle is overrun by alligators, the King rejects the notion that the princesses might be able to get them back into the moat, declaring, “Alligator problems are a job for the King.” Christians’ energetic cartoon art humorously depicts the havoc the alligators create in the castle while also hinting at the princesses’ clandestine efforts to build something to deal with the animals. Meanwhile, Prince Edward is “tired of only doing Proper Princely things,” and he starts a sewing project to enable him to spy on his sisters’ plan. The King remains stubbornly oblivious to his children’s activities, even when Edward tries to clue him in, providing ample humor for readers to enjoy. The text makes use of a humorous refrain that punctuates the goings-on: “At breakfast, Margaret washed pencil lines from her face. Harriet brushed sawdust from her clothes. Lila fell asleep in her oatmeal. And Edward hurried to the King….” A slapstick resolution cements the princesses’ ingenuity while obliterating any perception of them as stereotypical ingénues.

A fix for tired gender roles.