Dean Hale

Princess Magnolia has been tasked with preparing for a ball as part of the Flower Festival where many other princesses will be in attendance. She thinks she is more than prepared until an angry emu crashes the party and destroys her decorations. Her monster-fighting alter-ego "The Princess in Black" isn't really much help here -- but can a mysterious masked stranger calling himself "The Prince in Pink" be of assistance?

This was a fun addition to this action-packed series. Each short chapter show more ends on a little bit of a cliffhanger, promoting kids to want to keep reading more. The text is in a large font and uses relatively simple sentence structures to keep it accessible for younger readers. Some of the vocabulary such as "menacing" and "holster" will be a little more challenging, but hopefully in a way that encourages learning rather than just frustrates. I think there is enough other, simpler vocabulary along the way that the former should be the case.

With this series, I always love that a bunch of princesses can save the day with their wits and their brawn, without needing a fellow to step in. However, in this case, we do have a male character who is a key helper -- but more for his ability to decorate with flair than his capacity to fight (although we see he is capable of this as well). It's a nice gender twist and a step towards all kids seeing themselves represented in literature. No matter how silly the story might be (flightless birds upset that they weren't invited to dance!), there can always be deeper messages tucked within for the readers to uncover.

Beyond the Prince in Pink, there's plenty more in the illustrations of pink objects and beautiful costumes with flourishes to appeal to those readers who like those aspects of more traditional princess stories. I really enjoyed the flower theme, especially the little puns seen prior to the ball at the fair with its rides like "bumper bees" and "rosemary-go-round." show less

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale is a novelisation of the awesome comic book character's early high school life and emergence as a superhero. It's a YA book and is set when Doreen Green is fourteen and has just moved to New Jersey from LA.

This book was awesome! I mean, Squirrel Girl is already a pretty awesome character and if I had any apprehensions going in it was that the novel character wouldn't be quite the same as the comic character. show more But, although novel!Doreen is younger than comic!Doreen (who is in college), the authors managed to get her voice down exactly, giving the book a very similar feel to the comics. And there are footnotes from Doreen as she reads along with us.

On top of that, some of the chapters are from other characters' points of view, like Doreen's best human friend Ana Sofía (more on her shortly) and Doreen's best squirrel friend Tippy-Toe. Yes, there are chapters from Tippy-Toe's point of view. And they are in first person. And they are awesome. So awesome. And my favourite thing with Tippy-Toe is a bit of a spoiler...

Tippy-Toe picks up some ASL from watching Doreen and Ana Sofía sign to each other and then is able to sign to Ana Sofía in an emergency. Eeeee!

Ana Sofía, meanwhile, is the first friend Doreen makes at her new school and is instrumental in keeping her spirits up when times are tough. She also plays a part in helping Squirrel Girl save the day.

Squirrel Girl is awesome and you should read this book even if you haven't read any of the recent comics. They are completely independent of the book, despite being about the same character. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who likes YA and/or superheroes and also doesn't hate fun. Because Squirrel Girl is awesome.

5 / 5 stars show less

Princess Magnolia is in charge of decorations for the Flower Festival Ball, but an angry emu stomps on her disco ball. Fortunately, the Prince in Pink is there to save the day, helping Princess Magnolia wage decoration for the ball. When the angry emu returns with two ostriches - the Flightless Bird Herd - it turns out they just wanted to be invited to dance.

Everyone's secret identities (Magnolia/Princess in Black, Duff/Goat Avenger, Prince Valerian/Prince in Pink) are nearly out in the show more open in a wink-wink, nudge-nudge way, showing that everyone's got (at least) two sides, and no one has to conform to what's expected, especially where gender roles are concerned. Funny and fun!

Quotes

Princess Sneezewort was neck-deep in fennel cakes. (8)

She thought she had been prepared for everything. But she had not been prepared for a grumpy emu. (27)

This was the kind of challenge that the Prince in Pink liked. (43)

It wasn't fair. She wanted to party. She yearned to dance. But nobody thought about Emu. Nobody invited her to balls. (49) show less

This rocked. The Hales (and Hale) have taken traditional fairy tales and set them into a gritty historical world that resembles the United States 1800s, you know if there were monsters and giants and magic.

This is the first book in the series, and while I read the 2nd first, I was fine reading them out of order. This one takes place in the Old West, one run by Mother Gothel who has a mafia-like hold on the land because of her ability to make things grow... or not. Rapunzel is her daughter, show more only she discovers she was kidnapped from her real parents, and she decides to rescue her mother from Gothel's slave mines and free the land from Gothel's rule. Enter Jack, of the beanstalk, and his goose Goldy. The two join Rapunzel on her quest.

Hale's version of Rapunzel is fantastic. She's smart, independent, loyal, has a strong moral streak, and uses her long hair like lassos. I think I liked this story better than Calamity Jack. I liked the setting better, and Rapunzel better than Jack.

I hope the Hales write more in this series soon. I want more! show less