Review: The Princess in Black

The Princess in Black
By Shannon Hale and Dean Hale
Illustrated by LeUyen Pham
Candlewick Press, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6510-4

Princess Magnolia is very prim and proper.  She wears pink.  She is neat.  She also has a secret.  One day, Princess Magnolia is having hot chocolate and scones with Duchess Wigtower in her castle when her glitter-stone ring rang, sounding the monster alarm.  Excusing herself, Princess Magnolia rushes to the broom closet and emerges as her secret identity, the Princess in Black!  With her trusty pony Blacky (aka Frimplepants the unicorn), the Princess in Black fights monsters and wears black, unlike how most princesses behave.  Can she defeat the big blue monster and get back in time before the nosy duchess discovers her secret?

This amusing story is fun to read and the illustrations are really cute.  The large print makes this chapter book a good choice for newly independent readers.  I also love the action aspect of this book and that girls can kick butt and aren't afraid of spiders.  The introduction of another hero, the Goat Avenger, makes me eagerly await the second book in this series.  If you're looking for a good choice for a young child transitioning up to chapter books, give this one a try.  It'll be our secret.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Written and illustrated by Brian Selznick.  New York: Scholastic Press, 2007.

The saying "so many books, so little title" aptly describes me and my reading habits.  Now, I'm an avid reader and I love to read, but I always feel like I will never get to read everything I'm "supposed" to.  As a children's librarian, this definitely applies.  Each month, as I catalog the new books, I think "I should read this," but I pass it along for a later date in time, as I already have a stack of books to read on my nightstand.  This applies to this book...I guess several years is later enough!  Winner of the 2008 Caldecott Medal and a movie adaptation due in theaters this November, I thought I should finally read this book.

Hugo Cabret is twelve years old and lives in the walls of a Paris train station.  Orphaned and abandoned by his alcoholic uncle, he repairs clocks and steals in order to survive and remain undiscovered.  While attempting to steal a toy, he gets caught by the owner and suddenly his world and the secrets he's trying to protect become exposed.  His life becomes intersected with Papa Georges (the shop keeper) and his goddaughter Isabelle.  Hugo has a notebook from his father that describes how to fix an automaton that his father rescued from a museum before his death.  Hugo is convinced that if he can get the machine to work, it will solve all of his problems.  Unbeknownst to Hugo, Papa Georges also has a secret that is linked to the machine.  How does the notebook, a drawing, a key and a message all connect?  You'll have to read the story to find out!

Please don't let the length of this book put you off from reading it!  I finished this book in a day.  About 300 of its 500 pages are illustrations . The text and the story itself is not complicated or hard to read, so this is a great choice for children ages 7 and up.  The illustrations are done in pencil and are exquisitely detailed.  What I love about illustrations is their part in storytelling and I poured over each one absorbing them as much as the words on the pages.  I am eager to see how they interpret the illustrations into the movie adaptation, since they are such a large part of this novel.

Now that's I've got this checked off my list, what to read next?  Hmmm....perhaps Brian Selznick's new novel Wonderstruck?  I think so.

Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom

By Eric Wight

FICTION (ages 7 and up)

When you were a kid, what was your least favorite chore? If you were anything like Frankie Pickle it was cleaning your room. Franklin Lorenzo Piccolini is a kid who loves video games and action figures. He has a very vivid imagination and along with his trusty side-kick, his dog Argyle, he goes on many adventures. One day, his mom told him he had to clean his room, but Frankie argued why, since it's just going to get dirty again. His mom said okay, he didn't have to clean his room since it was his space, but he was responsible for whatever happened to the room. So laundry piled up, toys got lost under piles of trash, and the Dryer Sheet Fairy (a.k.a. Mom) didn't visit his room again. Pretty soon, things got stinky, especially Frankie. One night, something smelled so horrible that Frankie couldn't take it anymore and so off he went to fight dirt and the dreaded Bacteria Breath (a moldy salami and relish sandwich). This book is a combination of a graphic novel and chapter book format. It is wonderful for reluctant readers and the graphics fit in nicely with the text. Whenever Frankie goes on an adventure a la Indiana Jones, you get the comic book format. This book is hilarious and will be enjoyed by children and parents too! You'll never look at cleaning your room as a boring chore again!