A review by greymalkin
Princess Tales Around the World: Once Upon a Time in Rhyme with Seek-and-Find Pictures by Gail de Marcken, Grace Maccarone

adventurous medium-paced
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

I wanted to love this more but the rhymes created a block of text that became hard to read and made the stories convoluted.

I was also surprised that the stories included so much violence and death in a book that I presumed was for very young children because of the "seek-and-find pictures" aspect.

But maybe it's not for children since the text includes words like "disparaged" and "ilk" and "vengeful".

I guess I'm not sure who the audience for this book is or I'm maybe underestimating how much older kids might enjoy being told to "find 11 swords and a toad"?

I did appreciate that some of the stories were changed from their classic darker endings to give them a happier ending, but still, a little odd to change that and not change that people died or were blinded or almost burned to death.

I also liked the illustrations that do their best to show ethnic diversity, that's a nice touch.