It had a lovely children's section at the back, and after much perusal one of the books I chose was You Can't Scare a Princess by Gillian Rogerson and illustrated by Sarah McIntyre. We already own and love You Can't Eat a Princess by the same team and have enjoyed some of the related activities on Sarah McIntyre's website (see earlier blog post).
So what did we think about You Can't Scare a Princess? Well, S has asked me to read it at least three times since last Sunday so that's a good sign! It's a fun tale about a band of pirates who arrive at Cupcake Palace in search of buried treasure. At first they tie up the hapless King Cupcake but of course Princess Spaghetti eventually rescues him! She then helps the pirates find their treasure... except it has already been discovered by Captain Nastybeard! In an attempt to distract the pirates (and get her father untied) Princess Spaghetti teaches them how to rollerskate.
If you've read any of my other blog posts you'll know I do love a book with great voice-ability (I don't think that's a real word by the way but hopefully it describes what I mean!) - featuring characters that lend themselves to funny/dramatic voices. Princess Spaghetti is definitely one of those characters and I love to put on a posh, princessy voice to read her lines.For Captain Waffle I have my pirate voice which for some reason is a bit west country!
The illustrations are fantastically detailed so there's more to discover with each read. S loves the bit where the pirates and Princess Spaghetti dig for the buried treasure and traces her finger along the tunnel saying 'dig dig dig'. Another favourite spread is where all the pirates are wearing rollerskates and she likes to point out each pair and tell me what colour they are.
Princess Spaghetti is a feisty, brave character and even though she's bedecked in the predictable princess pink, she is a good role model for little girls. The other thing I like about both books is that they involve stereotypical boy topics - aliens and pirates. But I do have one minor annoyance about You Can't Scare a Princess and that is the fact there is only one token female pirate and she is also dressed predictably in pink. I do think it would be more in keeping with the spirit of Princess Spaghetti if the pirate crew had been more mixed gender-wise.
Still, it's a good read and I hope we see more of Princess Spaghetti in the future.
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