The Tough Princess - Martin Waddell

.../> It's a book where the princess takes the lead role and doesn't sit around waiting for the handsome prince to come and find her and "live happily ever after". I do sometimes have a problem with this in fairy stories because girls have this strong believe that they are going to kiss the frog and lo and behold, it's a prince.

**THE STORY**

The story starts as all good fairy stories do in the time honoured ...
...caravan.

The queen tells the king she is going to have a baby, and he is delighted, hoping for a boy who will become a hero and end up marrying a princess. However, baby arrives and it's a girl, and the king is more than delighted because she will grow up to be beautiful, and then, he muses, if he annoys a bad fairy, the princess will get into bother and a handsome prince will rescue her.

They call the baby Rosamund ... more

We do like this book- by "we" I am alluding to myself and little miss.

It's a book where the princess takes the lead role and doesn't sit around waiting for the handsome prince to come and find her and "live happily ever after". I do sometimes have a problem with this in fairy stories because girls have this strong believe that they are going to kiss the frog and lo and behold, it's a prince.

**THE STORY**

The story starts as all good fairy stories do in the time honoured way -"Once upon a time…"

However, this time, it's a king and queen who weren't very good at what they were doing; they lost wars and ended up living in a caravan.

The queen tells the king she is going to have a baby, and he is delighted, hoping for a boy who will become a hero and end up marrying a princess. However, baby arrives and it's a girl, and the king is more than delighted because she will grow up to be beautiful, and then, he muses, if he annoys a bad fairy, the princess will get into bother and a handsome prince will rescue her.

They call the baby Rosamund and as she grows, she grows taller and taller until she can't fit into the caravan and has to sleep in a tent.

When she is 17, the king decides it is time she was married and goes in search of a bad fairy. He finds a good fairy and when he eventually finds a bad one she turns him into a frog, but that spell wore off. By the time he met a very bad fairy, and when the king was rude to her, she ran off to cast a spell on Rosamund. Nice try, bad fairy…when she finds Rosamund and tries to cast her spell, "BIFF!" Rosamund knocks her out!

Rosamund goes off to find a prince in her own way and off she sets on her bicycle. She has lots of adventures on the way, slays dragons, saves princes, and then she returns home.

It's here that she notices the sign "This way to the enchanted prince", and she follows it. She finds a prince lying asleep and she gives him a "big smacky kiss". He wakes with a start and biffed her back.

"They biffed happily ever after"

I have told the whole story because for children' books, I think it is important that we know what we are going to read to them, because only parents/ carers know what they are going to enjoy and understand.

**THE ILLUSTRATIONS**

The illustrations are quite amusing…the very first one shows the queen in all of her finery banging nails into the shed and the king looking miserably at a burning frying pan. Very p.c.- no ladies doing the cooking here.

When the king goes to look for the fairies, the predominant background colour is black, and there are trees all around so we get a real feeling that he is indeed in a dark forest.

Throughout the book, the text fits around the illustrations so there is plenty for children to look at and comment upon. Little miss is always fascinated at how tall the princess grows "much taller then her daddy".

**OTHER BITS OF INFORMATION**

My copy is published by walker books,1986, and cost £3.99.
ISBN 0-7445-1226-3

There are lots of other copies to be found on various sites, and as ever I always check out amazon, where copies can be bought from £1.00

**OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR**

Martin Waddell is quite a prolific story writer.

Other books include:

You and Me Little Bear
Who Do You Love?
Webster J. Duck
Tom Rabbit
What Use is A Moose
Once there were giants

**VERDICT**

A great book to read if you want to get away from stereotypes, and the princesses in pink lacey dresses, which sometimes I feel I must.

I like the fact that Rosamund seems in charge of her own destiny and is not going to wait around for someone to marry her off. She does meet lots of handsome, wealthy princes along the way but she doesn't like them much so throws them away- go girl!!

The references to other fairy tales are good, and allow children to feel secure about the story. Although it is different to many fairy tales, it does follow the fairy tale format with the typical beginning, almost typical ending, and good overcoming bad. Children are keen to tell you which fairy tales are being suggested when the prince is asleep, and little miss thought it was really funny the first time we read it, and the princess woke the prince with a kiss. We also worked out that the king wanted to find a bad fairy to cast a spell just like Sleeping beauty.

Great for confidence building and cross referencing with other books.

The pictures are also lively enough to keep children entertained and have lots of room for discussion.

As I said earlier, a really good book if you want something a bit different, but with a format children will feel comfortable with.

Thanks for reading.

Daniela xx
 

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