The Fairy's Mistake

"This hand-sized volume features delicate black-and-white line drawings that are very much in keeping with the tone of many fairy tales, but those familiar with Levine's" Ella Enchanted" will wisely expect, and be gratified by, the sly and unexpected foolery of this story and its companion, " The Princess Test." In" The Fairy's Mistake, " Ethelinda is horrified to discover that her fairy blessing on the kind Rosella, that jewels fall from her mouth when she speaks, is being exploited by her greedy new husband, Prince Harold. Her curse on Rosella's sister, Myrtle, who drops slimy and creepy things from her mouth when she speaks, is also going awry; Myrtle uses this to get whatever she wants from people." The Princess Test" takes on Lorelei's ability to feel a pea under 20 mattresses: this young thing is a great trial to her family as she is allergic to, or injures herself with, almost every household item she touches. Genuinely delightful and funny, both tales are set in the village of Snettering-on-Snoakes in the Kingdom of Biddle, a place readers will want to visit again."--" Kirkus Reviews""The author of Ella Enchanted revisits similar territory in these first two installments of "The Princess Tales" series. Extended spoofs of the Grimms' ""Toads and Diamonds"" and Andersen's ""The Princess and the Pea, "" the stories feature characters with names such as Humphrey, Sam, Leonard, and Ethelinda. The action and dialogue, likewise, are down-to-earth and dryly humorous. In the first tale, a fairy rewards and punishes two sisters' respective kindness and greed, but both plans backfire wildly: Rosella ends up unhappily engaged to a prince who only has eyes for the jewels that spill fromher mouth, while people give Myrtle whatever her heart desires, so long as she keeps her mouth shut and her insects and reptiles to herself. All eventually works out, but the jokes wear thin by the end. The humor is more varied and original in the second story, in which a prince falls for a blacksmith's kind daughter but despairs of her ever passing his parents' "princess tests." He doesn't know it, but the girl's a shoo-in; Lorelei has the fragile constitution of a princess, and with her polite fastidiousness and excessive sensitivity toward food, clothing, and surroundings she easily crushes the competition-seventy-nine real princesses. Static and unnecessary illustrations accompany the stories, which are printed in an ornate, difficult-to-read typeface. Nowhere near as enchanting as Ella, but fans of funny fairy tales will have some laughs." -- "Horn Book"