Book Tour: Princesses Break Free – a Modern Fairy Tale
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Watch out, there’s a feisty new princess about! Or three, or four. We’re really stoked to be the final stop on the book tour for Princesses Break Free, by Timothy Knapman and Jenny Løvlie – a fantastic new picture book that challenges gender stereotypes and reinforces positive representation, something that’s very close to my heart.
Princesses Break Free is a fun, wild adventure challenging the stereotypical image of a helpless damsel in distress. The story starts in a fairy tale world like any other – princesses in distress are rescued by valiant and dashing princes and live happily ever after. But Princess Tilly has a different story to tell. In her mind, sitting around waiting to be rescued by a prince is BORING. So … Tilly simply rescues herself! And it’s not long before word of Tilly’s exploits spreads across the kingdom and inspires other princesses to take their fate into their own hands too, and do exactly what they’d always wanted to.
We really enjoyed reading this book together. Princess Tilly is a great role model, who takes life in to her own hands instead of waiting around for anyone else. And she shows not only other princesses, but also witches, dragons, evil queens, princes, and even the fairy godmother that they can do anything they want – and be whoever they want!
One of our favourite parts was at the end, where “Some of the princes realized that they actually liked being rescued. It made a nice change.” While the self confident Princess Tilly is definitely the protagonist of this story, I think it’s great that it concludes by showing both sides – that girls can be strong, and that boys can be vulnerable. My seven year old also liked the part where Tilly rescues herself with a parachute made from a giant pair of knickers – because when your are seven, anything to do with pants is hilarious!
Princesses Break Free has definitely been a welcome addition to our growing collection of gender stereotype challenging pictures books. And as an added bonus, the illustrations are gorgeous too.
Many thanks to Walker Books for inviting us to participate in this blog tour. Follow the rest of the tour here:
Walker Books have also generously offered 5 copies of this book to give away. Head over to our Twitter or Instagram accounts to enter!
Disclosure: We were gifted a free copy of Princesses Break Free in return for an honest review.
