Princess Pigsty »

Cornelia Funke is Germany's bestselling children's author after J. K. Rowling and R. L. Stine. In the fall of 2002, she made her brilliant debut in the English-language market with the release of the New York Times bestseller The Thief Lord. She is also the author of an acclaimed YA fantasy trilogy that includes Inkheart, Inkspell, and Inkdeath.

One morning Princess Isabella throws her crown out the window--it's BORING being a princess, she declares. When she steadfastly refuses to fetch her crown from the fishpond, her father, the king, puts his royal foot down. "Off to the pigsty with you!" he commands--and Isabella couldn't be happier about her punishment! Because while plain old princesses spend all their time primping and smiling and stifling yawns--yuckety-yuk!-- REAL girls get to peel onions, pick blackberries, and sometimes even sleep outside with the pigs.

Publishers Weekly

As they did in The Princess Knight, Funke and Meyer once again skewer the princess stereotype. While Isabella leads a pampered life that others can only dream of-waited on hand and foot, with someone to blow her nose for her and curl her hair-it's the royal gal's worst nightmare. "I am tired of being a princess! It's boring, boring, boring!" she bemoans one day. Servants drawn with eyes and mouths clamped tightly shut further underscore a life of repetition and conformity. Funke portrays her heroine with a fiercely independent streak, in direct contrast to Isabella's two older sisters, who are horrified when she tosses her crown into the goldfish pond. Even the king's entrance does not dissuade Isabella from her wish to try out ordinary things. Much to readers' amusement, the monarch's various punishments in the kitchen or pigsty only strengthen her desire (after her banishment to the kitchen for three days, Isabella asks her exasperated father, "Did you know that cream is made from milk?"). The king, however, appreciates his daughter's spunk: a pleasing parting image depicts father and daughter leaving the pigsty, hand in hand, bound for the castle with a new mutual respect. This charming feminist fairytale illustrates that happily-ever-after can mean different things to different people. Ages 4-8. (Apr.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.