Dadventure

I am not sure if The Girl is outgrowing her princess phase, but it certainly hasn’t been the focus of her attention in the past little while like it was at one time. That said, they are hard to ignore and Princesses still pop up from time to time. Like Patricia Coppard, we also try to expose The Girl to Princesses who don’t fit into the standard Princess stereotype. But it isn’t easy.

I once went to the public library with my daughter looking for anti-Princess Princess books – the kind with strong female characters who don’t end up living the Prince’s life at the end. I asked the librarian if she could recommend something that was about Princesses, but not the Disney kind. She could not recommend a single book. Even after I prompted her with a “something along the lines of The Paper Bag Princess, perhaps?” she still could not think of a book to recommend. So, after searching around the library ourselves, we finally found The Gypsy Princess about a young gypsy girl named Cinnamon who longs to live a Princess life until she actually gets to and finds it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Man, I wish I had Patricia’s list of recommended books that day because it looks like there are some good ones. So, if you are looking for a few anti-princess princess books, here are a few that she recommends, with a few of mine tossed in.

1. The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munch
2. The Gypsy Princess by Poebe Gilman
3. Princess Smartypants by Babette Cole
4. Sleeping Bobby by Will and Mary Pope Osborne
5. The Princess and the Packet of Frozen Peas by Tony Wilson (Patricia’s personal favourite)
6. Princesses Are Not Quitters by Kate Lum
7. Princess Pigsty by Cornelia Funke.

Care to add to the list? What is your favorite non-princess princess book?

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