THE PRINCESS AND THE-ABSOLUTELY-NOT-A-PRINCESS

A princess and a self-described social justice advocate compete against and boycott each other until they discover they may be able to help each other if they could just get along.

It is the first day of school for Princess Miranda, and she does not want to be there. It smells like hard-boiled eggs (ugh), the principal is too loud, and everyone is whispering about her. Maude, however, loves going to school because she wants to “make sure things are equal for all people,” and the only way to do that is to be with “the People.” When Princess Miranda rejects Maude’s offer of a hard-boiled egg and then refuses the stinky handkerchief Maude extends after a sneeze, Maude thinks the princess is rude. When Maude draws a mean picture of her, Princess Miranda has had enough. She doesn’t invite Maude to her royal birthday party, which leads Maude to start a birthday boycott. This series opener is a short and sweet chapter book, decorated with von Innerebner’s child-friendly illustrations as well as the drawings that Maude makes in her journal. Wunsch weaves in lessons of empathy and withholding judgment in an accessible, nonpreachy way. She ably captures and expresses feelings of misunderstanding and loneliness, all while creating laugh-out-loud scenes in which the girls ramp up the competition. Miranda is depicted on the cover with brown skin and straight, dark brown hair; Maude has pale skin and a tousled mop of light brown hair.

This unlikely combination of royalty and social justice delivers fun, learning, and laughs.