Books fit for a King or Queen

Today’s theme comes to you courtesy of a challenge set my by friend Amanda, who runs the online bookstore Books & Pieces. With Royal baby and Royal wedding fever sweeping the country, Amanda challenged me to put together a book round-up in the theme of royalty. Turns out that despite the many picture books we have, we don’t have many on the theme of royalty so I searched our local libraries for some great titles. I hope you enjoy the selection.

• Don’t Chew the Royal Shoe, by Kate Leake – This book was actually sent to us for review by Amanda, as part of the challenge. It features a royal pooch who loves to chew shoes instead of doggy toys. When his secret stash of chewed shoes is discovered in the garden, he ends up in the Queen’s bad books. Until the day his love of shoes foils a burglary attempt and he’s the hero of the day. An endearingly funny story that will have you laughing out loud. So thank you very much, Amanda, for sending us this book for review. We love it! It is available on the Books & Pieces website at a discounted price, as well as part of the 3 for £10 bundle offer. And if you quote the discount code BearFox10, you will receive an extra 10% off your order!
• The Princess and the Pig, by Jonathan Emmett (author) & Poly Bernatene – This is one of the library books I found. It starts with a baby princess and a pig, who are swapped in a freak accident and no one notices. Both sides think their charges were transformed by a curse or magic, just like in stories. Years later the farmer and his wife realise what really happened and try to set things right, but no one will believe them. Can there be a happy ending? A fun, topsy-turvy fairy tale that shows you don’t have to be a princess to live happily ever after.
• Prince Cinders, by Babette Cole – Another topsy-turvy fairy tale, this time from our own collection of books. Scrawny little Prince Cinders is left at home to do the dirty housework, while his handsome hairy brothers go out and party. Unfortunately the fairy who comes to his rescue is not very good at his job, but one pair of old jeans later, all’s well that ends well. At least for Prince Cinders.
• The Queen’s Hat, by Steve Antony – Another library find, this story sees the Queen and all the Queen’s men chasing around London after a runaway hat (though as you will see in the video below, I obviously don’t know the difference between a hat and a handbag). A lovely wee book that introduces children to famous London landmarks, and also fairly short making it perfect for very little ones.
• Hooray for Knickers, by Jill Lewis (author) & Deborah Allwright (illustrator) – Last but not least, another one from the library though I can see ourselves having to buy this one, that’s how much my boys loved it. King Grouchy wants to make some friends, so he invites Prince Jolly round to his place. He wants everything to be perfect, but in a classic case of Chinese whispers, his orders to his servants get changed every time they are passed along, with silk slippers turning in to frilly knickers. The King is furious, but Prince Jolly thinks a best friend with matching frilly knickers is fantastic. Hooray for knickers!

You can now also find videos of the weekly book round-ups over on YouTube, where I talk you through this week’s recommendations and give a bit more insight in to each book including a look at the illustrations inside! Watch this week’s video here:

If you enjoyed the video, I’d be really grateful if you would subscribe to my channel. Thanks!

What are your favourite picture book featuring royalty? Please feel free to share your recommendations in the comments below!

Disclosure: Please note that all the book links in this post are Amazon affiliate links. That means if you buy any books via these links, I receive a small percentage – at no extra cost to you! – which helps to keep this blog running. We received a free copy of the book “You’re Safe With Me” in return for an honest review, but all opinions are our own.