Gigi, God's Little Princess

February 28, 2005
A girl discovers that she really is a princess—just not of the variety she had originally thought—in this perky, but ultimately hollow picture book. Gigi feels certain she's royalty, as she enjoys tea parties and all things pink and fluffy, plus her father says, "Goodnight princess, sweet dreams!" to her every evening before bed. But when Gigi asks Daddy about the princess accoutrements she expects (jewels, a crown, loyal subjects, more manageable hair), she learns the truth: "We are children of the greatest King of all... and you are his daughter too. You are God's little princess!" Unfortunately, this revelation is too long in coming in Walsh's (the Gnoo Zoo series) uneven text, which sometimes adopts a knowing, adult tone that may be off-putting to young readers. The tale ultimately comes off as an exercise in semantics: it's not clear that Gigi understands her father's explanation of her princess-dom, as she playfully wonders on the last page "just exactly when will I get my crown?" On the lighter side, Johnson's two-color art (pink and white with black outline) has the loose and breezy feel of fashion sketches, and occasionally suggests the precocious spirit of Hilary Knight's Eloise. Ages 4-7.