#756 of 1001 · August 26, 2022

Rafe Martin and Kimberly Bulcken Root spin a delightful yarn in their comical adventure The Storytelling Princess. When a well-read prince hears that his parents have found him a bride, he declares he will only marry her if she can tell him a tale whose ending he does not already know. His father the king proclaims a large reward for anyone who meets the criterion. In a realm far away across the ocean, a princess is told that her parents have made a match for her, and she retorts that she would rather be washed overboard at sea than have someone else arrange her marriage. As fate would have it, her royal ship is caught in a storm that very night and she is indeed swept into the ocean. After washing up on land with only a chest of sailor’s clothes, she disguises herself as a young man and accepts the challenge to surprise the bookish prince, who is confident that he has heard enough stories to predict any ending. The princess cleverly relates the account of her own hazardous voyage, drawing it out for days and days before finally taking off her sailor’s outfit and revealing that protagonist and storyteller are one and the same. At that exact moment, her parents arrive and the whole truth emerges: the prince and the princess were arranged to be married from the very start. Martin’s cleverly circuitous narrative is well complemented by Root’s pencil-and-watercolor illustrations. #storytelling #princess #prince #story #stories #storyteller #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks