A Royal Easter Story

February 8, 2016
In this addition to the Princess Parable series, princesses Joy, Grace, Faith, Charity, and Hope prepare for their annual Easter pilgrimage and jubilee, during which they will deliver a cross, gifts, and decorations to townspeople “as we remember all that Jesus has done for us.” When the princesses find a lost child during a storm, they pray to God to help guide their caravan through the rain. Tiaras and dresses unspoiled, the princesses safely arrive and reunite the child with her mother. Aranda’s doe-eyed princesses—white-skinned, slender, and virtually identical—are rendered in a generic Disney-lite style, but despite a few inelegant phrases (“a frantic yet joyful-looking mother came running toward them”), Young and Johnson’s story provides an effective framework for discussions about service to others. Ages 4–8.

February 1, 2016
This seasonal entry in the Princess Parables series finds the five princess siblings traveling to an Easter festival, rescuing a lost little girl on the way. The princesses, who seem to be Disney-derived teens in flowing gowns and jeweled tiaras, are loading up their horse-drawn wagon in preparation for their journey to another town for an Easter celebration. The princesses are joined by their new neighbors, a group of five brothers who happen to be knights. The two groups of siblings decide to race to the festival by different routes, but the princesses are delayed by a tea party, their rescue of a lost child, and a sudden violent storm. The princesses lose the race but receive praise from their father for putting the lost child's welfare above winning. The sisters pray for guidance during the thunderstorm, and the king connects his gifts of Easter baskets to his daughters to gifts from heaven, specifically Jesus. A concluding note interprets the story with further Christian symbolism and relates the plot to a relevant, well-known New Testament Bible verse from the book of Luke. Though the writing is stilted, the illustrations commercial in style, and the kingdom evidently an all-white one, princesses enjoy proliferating popularity, and there are very few Easter stories with explicitly religious content in print. Slick: clearly calculated to hit a marketing sweet spot. (Religion/picture book. 4-7)

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