The Princess and the Pea (2024)

I liked most of the book, but the ending ruffled me a bit. it's mostly a cute take on the tale, however on the last page the prince's mom (the Queen) is shown to not really care about the prince, but about the material possessions that she would be gaining by marrying the prince off to Opal. She seems to go slightly backward in her character development. Generally, we see characters get better over the course of a story, not worse. Overall, the book is illustrated in bright colors, and the images are single-page spreads. the text itself toggles between which side of the page set it is on, but it doesn't change in makeup (paragraph style) or color like many others do. This book is hardcover with a horizontal layout. According to my mom, this used to be one of my favorite books for my brother to read to me, she still has a copy of it in a box somewhere apparently… I honestly can’t tell you why, there’s nothing really that sticks out to me. I think I just liked the voices he used to do.

Strange book. Don't get me wrong, I thought that the unique take on the traditional story was wonderful, but the ending, in my opinion, taught a horrible lesson. It blatantly stated that the only reason the princess was accepted was because she had a treasury full of jewels. What kind of message is that to tell young children? I also didn't really care for the illustration style, but that's a personal preference. Overall, while it was an interesting approach to the story, I found it did not live up to its potential.

Mikayla Presley
The Princess and the Pea
Genre: Realistic Fantasy/ Fairy Tale
Award: n/a
Audience: Pre-k-3rd
The Queen in this book is described and illustrated as sneaky, caring, and judgmental. The Princess is described and illustrated as hardworking, fun, and dirty. The characters are also illustrated more modernly.
I am familiar with many other versions of this story. I am most familiar with the musical version of this story and I have read the classic story in the past.
I would use this book for storytelling in a whole group because it is a classic fairy tale that can show the kids to be themselves in a very fun and interesting way.

The illustrations are almost uncomfortably funny! The twist on the story is refreshing because it showed that women to have talents like fixing cars and science. I do not like the prince's mom in this story because she was shallow.

Genre: Traditional Literature
Grade: 2-6

Love it! A twist on the story I've never heard before!

🧡

I absolutely loved this book as a kid, but rereading it now as an adult I see more of the red flags in the story.

In this version of The Princess and the Pea, the prince announces to his gem-obsessed mother that he intends to marry. The queen is concerned that a royal wedding will cost a lot of money, however, and that marriage in general (the prince’s as well as anyone else’s) will deplete the amount of gems available to her (for her collection), so she schemes to sabotage the prince’s plans. She devises a number of silly tests to put the princesses through their paces (hopscotch, yo-yo slinging, jump rope, etc.), and if a princess fails at any one of the tests, she is out of the running. The princesses are all beautiful, talented, intelligent women (seemingly), but each one of them fails the queen’s test. The prince is so irritated that he drives off in a huff – and meets the woman of his dreams, princess Opal. She repairs his car and returns to the palace with him where she passes the queen’s tests and is invited to spend the night, so the queen can test her royal pedigree by making her sleep on a pea buried under 20 mattresses (only a real princess would feel the pea). Opal doesn’t know this, but when she prepares for bed, her opal amulet gets caught in her hair, and that pokes into her back something awful. As a result she gets no sleep and passes the test with flying colors. Additionally, she has the opportunity to mention to the queen that her kingdom is famous for its opals and other gems – this makes them fast friends and the prince’s wedding proceeds without a hitch straight on to happily ever after!

This funny adaptation of The Princess and the Pea will amuse adults and children who are familiar with more traditional tellings of the original tale. I particularly liked that princess Opal drives a tow truck, fixes cars (she’s just doing this trucking thing until she comes of age), and is covered in grease and wearing overalls when prince Ralph meets her. Bright illustrations bring the characters to life (the ones of the princesses at their tasks are especially entertaining), and I loved the little corgis that occasionally show up in and around the palace.

Samuel loved The Princess and the Pea and asked for it repeatedly. The art is quite different from the Alain Vaes stuff we've looked at on our recent Alain Vaes kick. The works are spread over a few decades: the Wild Hamster from 1985, Puss in Boots from 1992, and this from 2001. I love the modern details he gives the fairy tale, brightening it with color and simplyfying the style and setting (compared to, say, Puss in Boots) without sacrificing depth and complexity-- such as in facial expressions. I find myself mesmerized by Opal's expression as she appears effortlessly caught up in the air for one hundred double Dutch jumps on one leg. And Samuel loves Opal in her overalls and kerchief, all spotted with grease.

Author: Alain Vaes

Title: The Princess and the Pea

Publication date: Sept. 2001

Annotation:
The prince of Upper Crestalia wants to get married, but his mother doesn't want him to, for selfish reasons of keeping her jewels. The queen makes up ridiculous tests to prevent an engagement. Then the prince meets Opal, heir to the throne of Lower Crestalia who is a mechanic. The prince soon falls in love. Can she pass the queen's absurd tests?

Themes: fairy tale, humor

Ways to use the book with children:

Compare the traditional version of The Princess and the Pea with this adaptation by using a Venn diagram.

Have students write their own variation of The Princess and the Pea.

They say never judge a book by its cover. I can't help it. I still get drawn in by a good cover. This version of The Princess and the Pea gave me the impression that it would be a fresh new twist on the original story. There was so much potential here but it failed. I don't like that the Queen finally accepted her future daughter-in-law because she was going to inherit jewels. What kind of message is that?

Re-reading books from my childhood & was looking for the original princess & the pea. Came across this &... Well I guess it wasn't entirely horrible? I liked the thought of a modern twist & the princess was a great character. It's because of her I'll give the book 2 stars instead of 1. Otherwise the writing was pretty bad. & rather random (normally I'm a fan of random, so that says something).

This was a cute adaptation of the traditional princess and the pea story. I felt like it kind of rushed through the end really quickly and they could have done more, but I was still happy with it overall.

This has to be the best version of this story ever!!!!

This is probably my favorite rendition of the classic story : the Princess and the Pea

Interesting version of the familiar story. It even offers something of an "explanation" as to how someone could feel a pea through however many soft mattresses.

Pretty decent version of the classic fairy tale--this one featuring a jewel-mad Queen and the Princess tow truck driver? Not up there as my favorite version but had moments of glimmer.

Cute take on a classic story. A bit on the long side for our story time, and I would have liked to see the very selfish queen learn a lesson, instead of getting everything she could possibly want.

Different spin on the classic story, yet including the traditional pea under the stack of mattresses.

hilarious, I love her interpritation of the story. It brings it to life. Amazingly clever.

Now here is a more flushed out version of the story. The princess and the prince fall in love at first sight, but other then that I liked this version.