Princesses Save The World, but muddle up this book     

In theory there is nothing that anyone should have against this book. Girl power-check girls can do anything, we got that memo. Nature is good-check, everyone totally agrees with that one too. We love the bees, can’t imagine our toast without their byproduct and want to see them on our butterfly bushes for millennia to come. Princesses Save The World has noble intentions, but ends up landing on the low end of a narrow “For Princesses Only” book category.

Princesses Save the World is from Savannah Guthrie and Allison Oppenheim, with illustrations by Eva Byrne. An initial observation says that three people involved in one children’s books are a lot of cooks in the kitchen. The first princess book, Princesses Wear Pants was successfully and this second book in the series does little, for better or worse, to rock that boat.

Princess Penelope Pineapple is back. She sees Princess Sabrina Strawberry who notifies her that all of the fruit did not come to harvest this year. The bees aren’t pollinating the fruits; which means that she has to call in the rest of the Princesses who represent the Fruit Nations.

The text in Princesses Save The World rhymes and is such that girls aged three through five will enjoy it. That same breakdown will also enjoy the sugary soft images in the book. However, there’s a certain banality that runs throughout Princesses Save The World that simply doesn’t make the book any fun to read for those outside of that age range.

Part of my issue with the book is its illustrations, color scheme, appearance and attitude on each page is almost identical. I just thumbed quickly through the book and it’s akin to an 80’s film montage on faux guilt.

Princesses make jam. The princesses are sad when the bees are there. There’s a princess convention. They invent something. They all celebrate the return of the bees, have a party and Andrew McCarthy comes out to dance with them. I’m just joking about the very last part.

As the father to two boys, I get that this book is not in our key area of interest, nor is it targeted towards us. However, as a parent who reads dozens upon dozens of children’s books a month this book falls short. It makes the appearance that it’s trying so hard and so earnest to represent everyone-or at least girls aged 3-7, that it represents nobody.

Princesses Save The World is 18 years too late. Up until the 2000’s equal representation in children’s book was a real thing that needed to be addressed. To be clear, it’s still an issue that needs to be talked about. However, the heavy, albeit fruit shaped stick that Princesses Save The World yields is too much. Every children’s book I see has characters that are all over the Benetton rainbow. Most of those books have its diversity and strength woven throughout it rather than shouting from the rooftops “Look how many Asian kids are represented in this book”.

If you have a pre-K girl who is into princesses-and nothing else, then Princesses Save The World is for them. If not, there are countless other books that will be better on almost every children’s book watermark.