THE PRINCESS AND THE PRESENTS

Bright candy colors and rhyming text characterize this tale of an utterly self-centered princess and her gentle dad, the king.

Princess Ruby’s birthday is coming up, and she wants a zillion presents, and she wants the best party, and she has the palace staff and her father at a run. Even her frizzy hair looks demanding. When the big day finally comes, she opens the biggest present and demands more. Well, there are presents everywhere: on the stairs, in all the bedrooms and even piled in the bathrooms. Ruby is delighted until an ominous cracking and creaking reveal the palace is about to collapse under the weight of all the gifts. The king sends Ruby outside to safety, and she tells him he must rescue every single present! When the castle does indeed collapse, Ruby realizes that what is dearest to her is her dad, and with the help of firefighters and citizenry, the king is found safe, protected by the cardboard box that held her treehouse. Undergoing a complete change of heart, Ruby serves a little cake and tea to everyone, and she “live[s] happily ever after / with her daddy in the tree.” The predominant color for everything is an acid pink, although the last image fades to a prettier pastel palette.

Ruby is so repellent before her metamorphosis readers will be hard put to care for her when it comes. (Picture book. 4-7)