We’ve all heard the stories of the princesses who marry the handsome princes and they all live happily ever after, right? Not so with “Princess Smartypants.” This particular princess has decided that she doesn’t want to get married, and that’s the end of it. Her parents are confused – doesn’t every princess want to get married? They show her the long line of suitors outside their door. Smartypants agrees to give each man a test, and she will marry the man who passes the test.
Well, she’s not named Smartypants for nothing. She devised the most clever test she could think of for each prince. She asked Prince Compost to take care of the slugs that were eating her garden. He was slightly scared off by the fact that they were giant slugs, eight feet tall. She asked Prince Vertigo to rescue her from a tall, tall, tall tower. That didn’t go over so well.
She thought she was off the hook until Prince Swashbuckle came along. He did everything she asked, and more. He did it with style. He did it with flair. He did it with a cute little black moustache. It seemed she would have to keep up her end of the bargain.
Leaning in for a pucker, she gave him a magic kiss. That talented girl turned him into a frog, a big, warty frog. He drove out of there as fast as he could, and when all the other princes heard what had happened, they decided not to continue to try to woo the fair princess. And that was just fine with her.
I loved this clever take on the old fairy tales. Who says a princess should pine away for a prince to carry her off? Why can’t she decide her own fate? In this “enchanting” storybook, she can and does.
(This book was published in 1986 by G. P. Putnam and was illustrated by the author.)
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