Petunia, the girl who was NOT a princess... and D's first words on the blog!

Well now, my Kendra is way too princessy and I'm... not. I'm as far from a princess as you'll get.

As I say, the nail polish is really one of the only girly things about me.

When I read a post on Cloud's blog where she was looking for reviewers for her new book, Petunia, the Girl who was NOT A Princess, and I saw that it was about one of my favourite soapbox subjects, I jumped on it :)

I had a few technical glitches (when I downloaded in the Kindle app, it was blank except for the cover - I'm sure this is my technical inexpertise) but fortunately the ibooks version worked perfectly.
The first few photos show Connor reading the story to himself. I even have a little video where he made up his own story just based on the pictures. So cute.

But then a few nights later, and for a few nights, D read them the story. See below.

(these photos were taken both with the canon and nikon. I still don't know what I'm doing but done is better than perfect, right?)

Since I didn't read the story to the kids, I asked D to write a review. Here we go (D's first words on this blog!!!!)

I love the heart of this story. It's ok for girls not to be princesses. I liked Petunia as a character and how she also learned it was ok to dress up a bit at times. I liked her friendship with Penelope. 

The artwork was very cute. The artwork and text mostly complemented each other. Two pages were exceptions. One was where she races cars and other activities where there's not enough text to dwell on all the images. The second one is Penelope moving in next door, where there's too much text for one image. Perhaps don't show Penelope's frills at first, so we really feel Petunia's disappointment.

Improvement areas: it loses a bit of dramatic punch near the end. The weakest point is the jump to the dance where new characters suddenly appear - it's all too sudden. Spend a bit more time developing the last few pages - that's where the success or failure of a story is. What does Petunia feel and learn and why should we care? 

Final note: I wasn't sure of the similar sounding names. It was confusing for me and difficult to keep each character separate in my mind easily. 

Otherwise, a lovely story. I look forward to more! 

d:notations
(D does copy editing and proofreading for his daytime job)

D says Connor really loved the book but we both said it could be because of the ipad. He loves to "control" the ipad.

Kendra liked the story but we could both see she's not quite sold on the idea of girls being princesses AND something else. She often says things like "girls can't play soccer" so she's a work in progress.

And me?

I love the idea of the book because I really believe girls need to grow up with the idea firmly lodged in their minds that they can do anything and still be a girl! The artwork is also very, very cute. I definitely think you should all get a copy especially if you have daughters. Please tell me if you get a copy :)

 
Do you have a princess or a girl who is not a princess at your home? Which one were you growing up?