The Princess Who Was Her Own Hero - Pedro T Flores

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Author: Pedro T Flores

Genre: Children's Picture Book
Rating: 2.5 stars.

A story with a good intention but needed a bit more polishing in its execution.

The titular princess has been captured and locked away by an unseen adversary. She initially wonders if she should wait for her father, the king of the land, or some prince to come and rescue her. But she soon decides that a better course of action is to take things in her own hands. She thus uses her brains and plots her escape.

I loved the idea. Princesses have long been written as weak and desperate, unable to do anything for themselves without a prince/king to save them. It is high time this idea is junked, and such books help. The verse on the final page is awesome.

Where the book could have worked better for me was in its layout and writing style. I am not very fond of forced rhythmic prose in picture books. The rhymes don’t flow smoothly and this jars while reading aloud. Furthermore, there are a couple of difficult words in the story that won’t work well for its little readers.

Also, there’s not much of a background to the characters or details to the plot. I know it is just a picture book but somehow, the writing feels very hazy. There’s more happening in the unwritten background than on the pages. I would have loved to see a better escape plan than just something vague saying “trickery and distraction were her biggest tools”.

The illustrations are decent in terms of matching the plot. But I am sorry, they look very amateurish.

Overall, it is a very simple story but with a powerful message. This should suit early readers well. But it is not “The Paper Bag Princess”. I expected a lot more.

2.5 stars.

My thanks to Black Rose Writing and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Princess Who Was Her Own Hero”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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