The Princess Knight
Cornelia Funke, author of the bestsellingThief Lord, tells a short, sweet story about a brave little princess with a mind of her own.King Wilfred's three sons learn to become big, bad knights the way any boisterous boys would: "They learned riding and jousting, fighting with swords...They learned how to stride proudly and how to shoutveryloudly." At her father's urging, young Princess Violetta tries to keep up with the same lessons, "even though she was so small she could hardly lift a sword at all!" Despite her brothers' teasing and laughing, Violetta continues to practice--even secretly at night. Soon enough, Violetta becomes "so nimble and quick" that when practicing with her brothers, "their spears and swords just hit the empty air." But then King Wilfred does the unthinkable: For his Violetta's sixteenth birthday, he plans a jousting tournament designed to bring "the bravest knights in the land flocking to the castle" to win…her hand in marriage! Violetta is outraged: "You wantmeto marry some dimwit in a tin suit?" Fortunately, of course, the princess finds a way to come to her own rescue.Funke does well in this picturebook format, but Kerstin Meyer's delicate and extremely cute illustrations set the quiet, measured (but still fun) tone of thePrincess Knight, as she takes inspiration from a bona fide medieval piece of art--the 11th-centuryBayeux Tapestry(Ages 4 to 8)--Paul Hughes