Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-A stunning follow-up to the The Tiny King (Candlewick, 2013), this Japanese fairy tale presents the story of a lovely little princess found in the garden. The king and queen give her all of the same comforts that they would a daughter. To the royal family's surprise, the tiny princess grows leaps and bounds each day until her head grows right through the tallest tower. Illustrated with colorful cutouts, this book is a visual delight. The unique digital collage artwork will inspire a host of related art activities. VERDICT The Big Princess is bound to be a big hit.-Betsy Davison, Cortland Free Library, NY © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
In this companion to The Tiny King (rev. 11/13), a childless king dreams that a bird tells him hell find a princess in the prized castle garden the next morning. The catch: The princess is under a spellIf you are able to break this spell, the princess will become your true daughter. And if the king cant? Then your kingdom will fall to ruins and be lost forever. Sure enough, the next morning the king finds a bug-size princess in the garden. His and the queens love for her grows daily, as, worrisomely, does the princess. How to stop her from physically outgrowing the castle (and hence the family)? When she is finally moved to the castles tallest tower (Miura employs a skyscraper-like gatefold to fine visual effect), the king sees, through a tower window, a seed stuck in her navel; its extraction -- his fatherly devotion, really -- breaks the spell, and three lives are ever-after lived happily. As he did in The Tiny King (which takes place at a later time, when the big princess is queen), Miura presents a sweetie-pie monarch whose yearning for a family drives the plot. But The Big Princess has a welcome adoption-story aspect. At books end, the child -- still a little bigger than the average princess -- doesnt match her parents, who unblinkingly accept her. Miuras digital collages feature improbably harmonizing elements: brightly colored, blocky geometric shapes coexist with realistic imagery, and characters whose faces seem to assume Hello Kitty-like blankness live out sometimes emotional scenes. nell beram (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A geometric kaleidoscope of digital images and collage forms the bones of this winsome tale. The king and queen have no children, but they love and care for the flowers in their garden. One night, the king dreams of a white bird, who tells him he will find a princess in his garden but that she is under a wicked spell. The next day, the king finds a tiny, fully formed girl child, small enough to sleep on a feather. But the next day, she needs a ring box and the day after that, a teacup. She keeps growing and growing until she is too big for the castle! In the highest, biggest tower (it's a foldout), she keeps growing until the tower itself begins to break apart. But the king sees a seed in her belly button through a (miraculously well-placed) tower window. He climbs the crumbling tower and pops the seed out, and his daughter is restored! (She is still quite tall indeed; her parents come only to her waist.) The figures are made of circles, triangles, and half moons; the princess is blonde, while her parents have black hair, and the many flowers are rendered in splashy patterns. And the seed? The king and queen plant it, and it becomes a field of sunflowers, which adorn the final page and the endpapers. Originally published in Japan, the story has an offbeat sensibility that may particularly appeal to lovers of anime, emoji, and that Japanese fondness for cuteness, kawaii. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
