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A review by gabriellecarolina
The Princess in Black and the Perfect Princess Party by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale
1.0
I will not be continuing this series for the following reasons:
1. As in the first installment I do not feel the Princess in Black is a three-dimensional character. She feels like a token "power-princess," which does not thrill me to admit, as I like to adhere to the philosophy that almost anything a girl/woman does with autonomy can be considered feminist, powerful, and interesting. This series, however, is proving the exception to this philosophy; The Princess in Black may be making her choices, but I do not understand why she's making them, I do not know what drives her, rendering her powerful moments weak and unrelatable. I do not cheer for her.
2. The illustrations are beautiful and diversity and representation are awesome, however I felt stereotype was leaned upon most heavily to render "familiar" images of non-white girls. For instance, the Chinese-looking princess was called Princess Snapdragon, and yes, they all have botanical names, but why is she Snapdragon? Why can't she be Clover? Or Iris? Or Sunflower? And why does the Native-American-looking princess need to ride a buck? The illustrations are beautiful, however they are paired with no backstory for these girls, turning them into tokens because...
3. The main character is white, and while her backstory suffers from white page syndrome, the only other speaking characters do not appear to belong to any culture in particular. Instead Princess Sneezegrass (was that her name?) has a costume and appearance relying on a floral theme, so though she has darker skin than the white princess we don't know who she is, other than an outcast. Which sucks that the only major character who is POC is an "other" and an outcast, even amongst a group of diverse princesses.
I know that the future installments may prove radically less problematic, however I am radically bored by the Princess in Black herself, and will not be returning to check in on the Woke-status of Hales' series.
1. As in the first installment I do not feel the Princess in Black is a three-dimensional character. She feels like a token "power-princess," which does not thrill me to admit, as I like to adhere to the philosophy that almost anything a girl/woman does with autonomy can be considered feminist, powerful, and interesting. This series, however, is proving the exception to this philosophy; The Princess in Black may be making her choices, but I do not understand why she's making them, I do not know what drives her, rendering her powerful moments weak and unrelatable. I do not cheer for her.
2. The illustrations are beautiful and diversity and representation are awesome, however I felt stereotype was leaned upon most heavily to render "familiar" images of non-white girls. For instance, the Chinese-looking princess was called Princess Snapdragon, and yes, they all have botanical names, but why is she Snapdragon? Why can't she be Clover? Or Iris? Or Sunflower? And why does the Native-American-looking princess need to ride a buck? The illustrations are beautiful, however they are paired with no backstory for these girls, turning them into tokens because...
3. The main character is white, and while her backstory suffers from white page syndrome, the only other speaking characters do not appear to belong to any culture in particular. Instead Princess Sneezegrass (was that her name?) has a costume and appearance relying on a floral theme, so though she has darker skin than the white princess we don't know who she is, other than an outcast. Which sucks that the only major character who is POC is an "other" and an outcast, even amongst a group of diverse princesses.
I know that the future installments may prove radically less problematic, however I am radically bored by the Princess in Black herself, and will not be returning to check in on the Woke-status of Hales' series.