Customer Reviews

Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper

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Barbie as the Prince and the Pauper is a delightful children's book written by Mary Man-Kong and illustrated by Lisa Falkenstern . The book is based on the original screenplay by Cliff Ruby . The front cover of the book is absolutely beautiful, and extremely appealing to little girls (if they are Barbie fans). Barbie (who stars as Annelise) graces the cover in a pink princess gown adorned with gold lining. She also is wearing a gold crown, letting everyone know, " Yes I am a princess. " Standing next to Barbie is her co-star Erika (yes, Erika is actually Barbie also). Erika is a rather Plain Jane compared to Annelise. She is wearing a simple blue dress and a homemade looking floral band on her head. They stand together smiling behind a beautiful castle on a hill and nicely painted mountains. The sky in the background is bright blue, and the two girls have little sparkles dancing around them.

The book is made of thin card board with twenty eight pages. This book is definitely not a book that young children can read on their own. The vocabulary would be more suited for children ages nine and up to read alone. However, that doesn't mean that younger ones would not love this book as well. There is a wonderful story in this book and my four year old understands most all of the words that I read to her. The illustrations in the book are just outstanding for a children's story. There are pictures on each page full of vivid color (some that take up an entire page). Just looking at the pictures alone would fascinate some children, but the best part really is the story.

And on to the Story

Annelise and Erika couldn't be more opposite when it comes to the lifestyles that they lead. While Annelise lives in luxury, Erika is a lonely seamstress in a small village. However different their lives may be, they both have a striking resemblance to each other. In fact, they look identical except for their attire and their hair color. The two girls had never met until Annelise walked away from her castle in a fury about being arranged to marry a king ( Dominick ) she was not in love with.

When Annelise and Barbie meet, they immediately notice the similarities of their looks and quickly become friends. As always, there is a villain. In this story his name happens to be Preminger , and Preminger wants to be king (I think we can all see where this one is going). Preminger being the baddie that he is has the princess Annelise kidnapped. His plan is quite silly but children seem to not notice. He believes that the queen will miss her poor daughter so much that she will be ever grateful to Preminger , thus allowing him to marry Annelise ( right ).

Anyhow, Preminger's plan fails when Annelise's tutor (and the man she truly loves by the name of Julian ) convinces Erika to pose as the princess until she is found. Meanwhile Annelise escapes and Preminger's plans are down the drain (But not in time for Erika to fall in love with the king Dominick . Awww).

In the end, justice is served to Preminger and they all live happily ever after (Including Erika who married the king, while Annelise gets her tutor in the end).

Recommended?

This is your typical fairy tale where all ends well and the bad guy is captured. Kids eat this stuff up. My daughter loves this book and is continuously asking me to read it to her. The illustrations as said before are beautiful and even I enjoy looking at them over and over. Even though the book is made of thin card board, it has proven to durable even to a four year old's rough hands. It is still in wonderful shape after having it for a few months, and it is read constantly. I would 100% recommend this book to all you Barbie fans out there and of course, to all the kids that love Barbie as well.