Cornelia Funke - or perhaps you know her as the German J.K. Rowling - packs a girl power punch into the storybook collection, A Princess, A Pirate, and One Wild Brother.
Funke is known for her young adult novels, (two of which have been made into movies) which explains why the three tales inside A Princess, A Pirate, and One Wild Brother are so engaging you almost miss the illustrations.
These three adventure tales are smart and sublime; from the princess who was raised to joust to the pirate girl who kicks some bad guy butt alongside her pirate mother, Barbarous Bertha. It is refreshing that this book isn’t screaming the message that “anything boys can do, girls can do better”. Funke simple creates the relatable characters of Violetta, Molly and Anna and plops them into extraordinary circumstances.
All three tales within, “The Princess Knight”, “Pirate Girl” and “The Wildest Brother” will have you cheering when your tot asks for a third reading, rather than the usual, “Um, I think that book had to go night, night.” – April Peveteaux
A Princess, A Pirate, and One Wild Brother (Scholastic, 2008) is available on Amazon.
Book of the Week appears every other Friday. Sometimes every
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