Preferred Princesses

Here's my current list of preferred princesses. I appreciate that the drawn ones, with the possible exception of Wonder Woman, aren't super skinny pretty girls. They also all have their own minds and take active parts in their adventures.

Picture books

Mollie Whuppie and the Giant
by Robin Muller
I had this book when I was growing up. It was one of my favourites. Based on a Scottish tale, it reverses the usual tale and has a third daughter, instead of a third son, going on a quest. Molly returns several times to thwart a giant with her cleverness, and, in doing so, wins the hands of the local princes for herself and her elder sisters. My mom still has my copy of this, so hopefully I can get it back to read to Geekling.

The Paper Bag Princess
by Robert Munsch
I love Munsch's books. This one is a classic. The princess starts off preparing to get married when her prince is kidnapped by a dragon and she has to rescue him. She clever and resourceful - the book is great fun to read, like most Munsch book's are. I already have one or two copies of this book.

Princess Pigsty
by Cornelia Funke
This is a cute book about a princess who hates being a princess because all she ever gets to do is sit around looking pretty. She's very determined. I thought it was a fun read. Funke has another book called Princess Knight that I've heard is also quite good.

Novels

The Princess Tales
by Gail Carson Levine
There are several of these little books that you can get in cute little hardcovers (I have the set). The stories include Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep (Sleeping Beauty), Cinder-Ellis and the Glass Hill and The Fairy's Mistake. They're short and satisfying reads.

Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
This book was made into a movie, but as in many cases, the book is far and away more enjoyable. The movie took the basic premise and Shrek-ified it. The book is a classic and I highly recommend it. Ella is an endearing character, doing her best to persevere some very trying circumstances and overcome her curse - the added twist in this novel, that Ella is "blessed" by a fairy to always be obedient, made the Cinderella story interesting for me again. I'd recommend just about anything by this author.

Beauty & Rose Daughter
by Robin McKinley
These are two different tellings of the Beauty and the Beast tale. McKinley is an award winning writer who has written many fairytale adaptations and fantasy novels. Some good ones which are also princess themed include Spindle's end, The Hero And The Crown and The Blue Sword.

Shannon Hale
Hale has written and is still writing some great books. She also wrote a graphic novel called Rapunzel's Revenge, a wild west flavoured version of the tale, which is how I first discovered her works. Hale's characters are rounded and flawed, showing real emotion and believable behaviour instead of being more typical fairytale cliches.
Book of a Thousand Days: A wonderful book, in a setting similar to the Mongolian steppes, that I personally enjoyed greatly. The narrator Dashti is actually the servant of a princess who is imprisoned with her in a tower for seven years when the princess refuses to marry the prince her father has made a pact with.
Princess Academy: This one is my favourite of Hale's books so far. The main character Miri is a smaller more frail girl among a hard working mining territory. When it is foretold that the prince must marry a girl from that territory, a princess academy is set up to train and evaluate the eligible girls. It's partly a coming of age tale and largely about finding your own place in the world, even if you aren't quite like everyone else.
The Goose Girl: Based on the tale of the same name, this novel has a wonderful depiction of the trials and character development an originally sheltered princess goes through. There is a sequel of sorts called Enna Burning.

The Ugly Princess and the Wise Fool
by Margaret Gray
This small book is mainly a comedic tale and it's a light fun read. It makes a little fun of the princess genre, but isn't to sharp or sarcastic - it also has a rather sweet ending. I got lucky and picked this up used on a whim.

Ordinary Princess
by M.M. Kaye
This is a sweet tale about a princess who received the gift of being ordinary, instead of being beautiful, from one the fairies to attend her birth.

I have heard of, but never read, Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries. For more adult oriented reworked fairytales, Gregory Maguire of Wicked fame has written novels based on Cinderella and Snow White (Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Mirror, Mirror respectively).

Comic books

Wonder Woman/Princess Diana
Various authors
I'd recommend the current run, particularly those issues written by Gail Simone (whose run on Birds of Prey was excellent and can be found collected in graphic novels). Keep in mind though, that comics these days are not always as kid friendly as they once were. They're less zap and pow and more like cable tv.

The Courageous Princess
by Rod Espinosa
Just like the title, the princess here is courageous and self rescuing. Mabelrose is young and has a few magical animal friends.

Neotopia
by Rod Espinosa
Collected in four little graphic novels, this epic story follows Nalyn, a maid who has lived her life with the royal family and has been ordered by the princess to impersonate her. Nalyn does, to great success, and ends up leading the charge when a neighbouring state declares war on them.

Bone
by Jeff Smith
The award winning Bone series has grown very popular since Scholastic began reissuing the graphic novels in colour and in kid sizes. While the Bone brothers are the main characters in the beginning, another significant character is Thorn, a princess in hiding. The series is fantasy with lots of humour. For a princess, Thorn is strong, courageous, intelligent and loyal, getting her share of the action and heroics as well.

Film

Ever After
I like this Cinderella retold movie with Drew Barrymore. Here, the Cinderella character takes action to help others and rescues herself. By the end of the movie, she seems to have rescued the prince from himself via their friendship and romance. The French setting, with Leonardo da Vinci no less, works wonderfully.

Hayao Miyazaki's films
Miyazaki's films generally have great female characters. I loved Spirited Away, though that really isn't a princess story at all. The film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is named after the princess who lives in a post apocalyptic type setting. The story itself is about man's misuse of technology, war and living in harmony with nature. The manga (comics) on which it is based are available as graphic novels; the movie only tells part of the whole story. I'm a big fan of all his films. Though many of them are better in the original Japanese with subtitles, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke have excellent English dubs, while the others ok.

I covered what I think of the princesses in Star Wars, Shrek and the Disney films in my previous Princess Issues post.


That's all I have so far. As I've said, I've been reading and watching quite a bit, and I do like to see rewrites and new takes on older fairytales and legends. If you have any suggestions or princesses you like, please let me know!