PRINCESS

By the Swiss author of Philomene (1992), a comic version of ``The Princess and the Pea.'' The queen sends her son forth with a list of ``certified'' princesses, each guarded by a monster that he duly slays. But alas! Their names presage the princesses' faults: the videopteryx guards a TV addict; behind the antiseptyx is a demon housekeeper; the bombachyderm's damsel is a bloodthirsty armored Valkyrie. On the way home, the prince falls for a comely shepherdess; the queen is suspicious, but after ``Princess'' topples from her high, unsteady bed in the night, her bruises cause the queen to leap to a fortuitous wrong conclusion. Wilsdorf's agile pen and watercolor illustrations are as amusing as her briskly irreverent text. (Picture book. 4-8)