The Princess and the Pea by Rachel Isadora

The Princess and the Pea Reviews

• 
  Ms.

  Genre: Traditional Story / Picture book
  Copyright: 2009
  Age level of interest: 4-8 yrs old
  Reading level: Pre-K - 3rd grade
  
  Brief Description:
  A remake of the classic story by Hans Christian Anderson tells the story of a Prince who sets off to find a Princess to marry. Set in Africa with an all black cast representing different African cultures with vibrant collage illustrations
  
  Two Characteristics:
  
  Plot: The story keeps many of the traditional prince and princess elements (prince has the power to choose, princesses eager to marry). It is simple and straightforward for the most part but a bit confusing toward the end when a storm ravaged Princess finds her way to the castle. It took me a reread to understand what was happening.
  
  Characters: This all black cast shows various shades of brown and cultural differences (although in a colonial exoticism way) within East Africa. These differences are seen through greetings in different languages, different clothing and hair styles and landscapes.
  
  
  Serving it's audience:
  
  This picture book would serve Pre-K through 2nd grade readers somewhat. It is beautifully illustrated and offers a different image of your classic princess story. Some of the pictures and writing is awkward however and tends to give a falsely exotic Africa image reminiscent of old National Geographics. Although the author has lived in East Africa for 10 years it is clear that she is still impacted by a colonial world view (like many of us) - I would not include this in my collection.
  
  Awards:
  None found.
  
  Review:
  Kirkus Review - June 1, 2007
• 
  Lara Lleverino

  I LOVE the illustrations in this Africa set version of Hans Christian Andersen's The Princess and the Pea. The story was lovely there was just one small problem I had. The last sentence on the page says, "There, that is a true story." I can't think of any sense in which this story is "true" and I think it is important to be clear about what things we say are "true" especially to younger very literal minded children.
• 
  Kirsty Cabot

  This a great book to show children like my own that princes and princesses aren’t always “Disney”. The illustrations are beautiful. A great way to open conversations about race. It also introduces saying hello in 3 African languages which was brill.
  
  Dropped a star because the fairy tale itself isn’t great, a prince going out looking for a princess until he finds the one that pleases him most, the mum tests her to make sure she meets the right standard. I like to think that the marriage was on mutual agreement.
• 
  Nathan Bartos

  Read for my Storytelling class.
  A pretty straightforward retelling of the tale set in Africa with "hello" featured in a few languages native to parts of Africa. I'm not sure I feel great about the author being an American white woman when the point of this book is show an African setting.
• 
  Roy

  This version of The Princess and the Pea is succinctly told with a stunning, African themed illustrative style.
• 
  Rekha

  The only reason it gets any stars at all is because I really love oil paint collage (think Leo Lionni). Other than that, the story is told flatly and the cultural context is flattened as well.
• 
  Hilary

  A lovely retelling of the old tale, with all the original elements and the addition of African illustrations and words. My 3yo was fascinated and keeps asking for this one!
• 
  Marlee Adams

  Summary:
  The Princess and the Pea tells the story of a young prince who is desperate to find his wife, another princess. Through many trials and meeting many women, the prince and his family become discouraged. On a stormy night, a princess arrives and faces the test of the pea.
  
  Evaluation:
  This book is focused on the original story of the The Princess and the Pea but gives a twist to tell the story of an African princess. The book has the same storyline as the original story, but the characters, location and setting have changed to align with the culture in which the story is told. It provides the same story, but with new aspects to demonstrate the difference of cultures, such as hair, clothing and background. The book also had words written in African on the pages, which did not translate.
  
  Teaching Ideas:
  I would use this book to introduce to the students different regions of the world and their cultures. I would use this book for a integrated lesson of Social Studies and English. I would use this book to introduce different parts of the world and how their culture is different than the known of the United States. I would use this lesson for an upper grades in Elementary school, such as 3rd thru 5th. I would have the students compare the language and culture of this book to things they are familiar with within their life and community.
• 
  Katie

  This African retelling of the classic fairy tale is beautifully illustrated and simply told. Isadora incorporates a variety of African cultures into the story, including greetings in Swahili, Somali, and Amharic. I can't get over the pictures: Like Eric Carle (but more layered and complex), they are created out of a variety of paper collages, with vibrant colors, patterns, and textures - it's almost like they move and have depth! I appreciate the simplicity of the text because for some reason, it's incredibly difficult to find simple versions of fairy tales and folk tales. Most are extremely long and detailed, and aren't suitable for preschoolers, even though the plot itself is right up their alley. Isadora keeps the magical ending firmly in the realm of "what if?" and doesn't try to explain away any of the more fun elements, as opposed to some versions that describe complex plots to let the princess in on that pea under her mattresses.
  
  Aside from the potential of art projects based around the illustrations, concepts of African culture and greetings in other languages, the concept of the twenty mattresses allows for some counting exercises as well, helping students really understand just how many twenty mattresses is! A fun story on its own, but a lot of great activities are possible too.
• 
  Dave Gibbons

  A retold, simplified version of Hans Christian Andersen's 'true story' fairy tale 'Prindsessen paa aerten' (The Princess On the Pea) which brings some BAME representation to the classroom. With just 6-7% of books in 2018 having a main character that is black or minority ethnic (Leonard, 2020) books like this can be very valuable for all children to read.
  Thankfully, in my current Primary School CSE I am seeing more and more books which show diversity in the Nursery setting ('Eat Up Gemma', 'One Green Apple', 'Lenny in the Garden', 'Tickle Tickle'), something which is clearly to be welcomed.
  
  This book is a faithful retelling of HCA's tale, but set in East Africa. The illustrations are wonderful; faithful to national dress and language; celebrating authentic hair styles and different body shapes and skin tones.
  
  Cross curricula activities (I would suggest at Y3 or Y4 and above) could include recreating some of the national dress in Art class; emotions and feelings of sadness, loneliness, suspicion and love can be discussed in PSHE; Geography can investigate Ethiopian, Somalian and Kenyan society and language; and further parallels can be drawn to other literature which uses weather events (such as the storm in this story) as 'character' or plot devices (see Wuthering Heights or Frankenstein for example).
• 
  Hannah Barnes

  Summary: A prince is looking for a princess to become his other half, but he is becoming quite doubtful in his search when he does not find a princess to fit his liking. Until one day when a distraught princess shows up at the king’s door, disheveled, but a princess none the less. Now the pressure is on the King to discover if she is truly a princess.
  
  Evaluation: This book is a twist on the classic story of The Princess and the Pea. It provides a story that most people have heard, but with different characters and based in a different culture and setting. It provides a newness to a seemingly older story and allows the reader to see insight on different cultures wardrobes, actions, and perceptions. The only downside I found in this book were the non-english words. They were just placed on pages and I could only assume they were names of the princesses that the King was meeting.
  
  Teaching Ideas: This book could make a great compare and contrast lesson as the student could compare the original version to the African version. This could also be used to teach different cultures. It’s a good way to explain to students that everyone can make anything their own by just changing it to fit their culture.
  
• 
  Alexandra

  The Princess And The Pea by Rachel Isadora is a wonderful retelling of an interesting classic that is set in Africa. The story begins, like the original tale, with a prince looking for a princess. However, he finds this task more difficult than he expected. He searches for a wife but is unable to find one that he feels like is the “right one.” Finally, one night a woman knocks on his door asking for shelter and the family decides to let her sleep there. They decide to put a pea under 20 mattresses, and if she’s able to feel the pea, then she will be the one for the prince. She does feel the pea and ends up marrying the prince.
  The book is the traditional plot of the princess and the pea but includes a few interesting aspects of African culture including three different ways to say, “Hello.” The illustrations are bright, patterned, and truly engaging. However, this story does not focus on one culture in Africa; it actually highlights three different countries. This makes the story at times culturally generic but nevertheless the illustrations keep the reader engaged. I would recommend using this book with children ages 4-9. This could be used to discuss illustrations specifically, but also setting and how plot/structure work in a story.
• 
  Abigail Veillon

  In this retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's tale, a prince travels all around the world in hopes of finding a wife. As he travels through Africa, he meets several princesses, but he cannot figure out which of them is real. One afternoon, the prince opens his door to find a woman claiming to be a princess. Determined to figure out if this is a true princess or not, the queen enters the bedroom and places a single pea beneath twenty mattresses. When the princess rises in the morning, she admits that she has tossed and turned all night, struggling to find comfort. Because of this, it was clear that she was an actual princess, so the prince took her as his wife.
  
  While I am not a fan of the original tale, I found this retelling to be delightful. The author was able to stay true to the original tale while incorporating her own flair and uniqueness. I love that the artwork is true to African culture and depicts African women in a beautiful way. The colors were vibrant and bold, and they work beautifully with the text that Rachel Isadora has written.
  
• 
  Erin Alaspa

  This book was a classic with new pictures. I did love the pictures and I have always loved the story, but the pictures could be changed to any culture and you wouldn't be able to tell. It's a good book to read to younger elementary from preschool to second grade, mostly so that younger students that come from African descent can see characters that look like them in a book. I would reccommend it for that reason.
  Obviously, everyone knows the story of the princess and the pea, but this book, sadly, had no twist on it. The prince needed to marry a princess and goes through the whole land to not find a princess he feels is a TRUE princess. When all hope has left the prince, a princess comes to the kingdom on a stormy night and needs to stay at the castle. The queen performs a test overnight to determine whether or not she is a TRUE princess.
• 
  Alesha M

  Genre: Fairy Tale
  
  Bibliography: Isadora, R. (2009). The princess and the pea. New York, NY: Puffin Books.
  
  Response: Caldecott Winner Rachel Isadora takes an African Interpretation of the famous fairy tale of The Princess and the Pea. The prince needs to find a suitable princess to make his mother happy. In order to find a suitable princess, she must sleep on forty mattresses and be able to feel the pea under all of them. This retelling highlights African culture by also introducing multiple different languages. This easy feel-good read is suitable for small children and will keep them with beautiful, fitting illustrations, while also introducing them to different parts of the world that may be not shown prominently in schools. This is a great way to add representation in an easy way to class and school libraries, which is always beneficial for PoC and others.
• 
  Brett

  Lots of Kids books gonna be on this feed in the next few years since I'm Daddin' hard so be warned.
  
  While it's hard not to love this because of the amazing illustrations I think some of my wife's criticisms about Isadora's Rapunzel (which I defended hard) came up for me here. It's lovely to update the tale's setting to Africa, but there really isn't much of a story here, and what little message there is feels even more outdated by changing the locale. Again, amazing visuals, and I really dug the use of saying "hi" in different languages as the Prince travels around the continent, but this is much weaker than "Rapunzel."
• 
  Jaden Craig

  The Princess and the Pea by Rachel Isadora is a children's literature classic placed in an African setting. This book is about a prince who wanted to marry a real princess but found it hard to distinguish which princesses were real and which were fake. During the middle of a storm, a princess appears at the prince's door, so they test the girl to see if she is a true princess. I would use this book in my future classroom when I wanted to cultivate the start of a discussion about different cultures around the world and all around us every day. I would also use this book to teach my students that you can not judge someone by their appearance.
• 
  Sonya Williams

  I remember reading this story when I was a child. I’m not sure if this version is different and parts of the story were left out in this book but it didn’t seem to have much substance at all. However I did enjoy the illustrations. I chose this book because 1 because representation matters, so I want my daughter to see characters that also represent her ethnicity. 2 I wanted to share a story that I enjoyed as a child. Although the pictures are beautiful and the story is cute, I only gave it 3 stars because I don’t like the fact that they book didn’t have much substance to it.
• 
  Ann Sawyer

  Not sure about this book.
  Positives:
  Amazing colour collage illustration
  Ethnically diverse characters
  Use of local dialect in text
  Familiar story transported to a different location
  Negatives:
  Stereotype characters - prince looking for princess, queen forces decision to marry
  Aspects of colonial view of Africa
  Missed opportunity to explore what constitutes a "real" princess - could easily have been the poor girl from down the road
  What's all this about it being a true story - did I miss something, I thought it was a fairy tale?