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THE BIG PRINCESS by Taro Miura

THE BIG PRINCESS

by Taro Miura ; illustrated by Taro Miura

Pub Date: May 12th, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7459-5
Publisher: Candlewick

A geometric kaleidoscope of digital images and collage forms the bones of this winsome tale.

The king and queen have no children, but they love and care for the flowers in their garden. One night, the king dreams of a white bird, who tells him he will find a princess in his garden but that she is under a wicked spell. The next day, the king finds a tiny, fully formed girl child, small enough to sleep on a feather. But the next day, she needs a ring box and the day after that, a teacup. She keeps growing and growing until she is too big for the castle! In the highest, biggest tower (it’s a foldout), she keeps growing until the tower itself begins to break apart. But the king sees a seed in her belly button through a (miraculously well-placed) tower window. He climbs the crumbling tower and pops the seed out, and his daughter is restored! (She is still quite tall indeed; her parents come only to her waist.) The figures are made of circles, triangles, and half moons; the princess is blonde, while her parents have black hair, and the many flowers are rendered in splashy patterns. And the seed? The king and queen plant it, and it becomes a field of sunflowers, which adorn the final page and the endpapers.

Originally published in Japan, the story has an offbeat sensibility that may particularly appeal to lovers of anime, emoji, and that Japanese fondness for cuteness, kawaii

. (Picture book. 4-8)