Fractured fairy tales are so much fun. They take an old story that you know quite well and change the characters, setting, points of view, or plot. Sometimes a story needs a little bit of modernizing and sometimes you are just getting a completely different spin on the story. One of the newest in this genre is Twelve Terribly Active Princesses Who Were Not Exactly Dancing, by Michael Ann Dobbs.
This story is a retake of the classic Twelve Dancing Princesses. In the classic Grimm’s Brothers fairy tale, Twelve princesses, each more beautiful than the last, sleep in twelve beds in the same room. Every night, their doors are securely locked. But in the morning, their dancing shoes are found to be worn through as if they had been dancing all night. The king, perplexed, promises his kingdom and each daughter to any man who can discover the princesses’ midnight secret within three days and three nights, but those who fail within the set time limit will be put to death. An old soldier heeds the king’s call and discovers that the princesses are secretly going into another realm where they dance the night away with twelve princes. He shares his findings with the king, is given the hand of one in marriage, and all of the princesses are put under a curse for as many nights as they had danced with the princes.
In his new book, Michael Ann Dobbs imagines the twelve princesses going to a magical world to play baseball instead of dancing with princes. In this story, the king gets frustrated when his 12 daughters fall asleep all over the castle – at breakfast, at their lessons, even while practicing their musical instruments. He also is annoyed that every morning their beautiful satin slippers are covered in mud and worn to shreds and that their bloomers have tears in the knees. But when one falls asleep in her soup at a state dinner he has had enough. He starts by trying to move them to less lush living quarters, but that doesn’t seem to make a difference. He decides to take more drastic measures.
At the same time a soldier, who wasn’t very good at soldiering, is looking for work. He hears of the decree from the king and, with help from an old lady he meets, decides to try to solve the mystery. He discovers that the princesses are going through a magic mirror to play baseball, a sport he has never seen before and doesn’t understand. After a brief explanation of the game and a few delicious hot dogs, he sits back and enjoys the show. When the princesses win their game, he also sees the sheer happiness on their faces.
The soldier wants to tell the king what he has discovered, but he also doesn’t want to take baseball away from the princesses – a very interesting twist on the original. He figures out a way to make everyone happy and avoids having his head cut off for not solving the mystery. He also chooses not to marry one of the princesses, allowing them to be saved from a rather ridiculous concept.
The story was a fun read and my 6 year old really enjoyed it. As the reader, there were some parts that I found incredibly repetitive, such as listing all twelve princesses names over and over as well as some of the parts when the king keeps moving the princesses from room to room thinking it will get them to sleep more. I really liked the fact that the princesses weren’t sneaking out to dance with princes, but rather had found a sport that they loved to play as a team. It was also nice to have the soldier work hard to find the princesses, and himself, a happy ending. He realized how much pleasure the girls got out of playing baseball and he knew that it shouldn’t be taken away from them. An additional fun twist was the little old lady who helped the soldier turned out to be the girls’ grandmother and quite the little manipulator herself.
The book reads like an extra long picture book which makes it especially nice for the older child who still likes to listen to stories, but wants more plot. For the middle grader reader who is looking for an interesting take on this classic tale, I would recommend The Princess Curse, by Merrie Haskell.
*Note – I received a digital copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.