Customer Reviews

The Princesses Have a Ball

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4 star:		(2)
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As a father of a 3-year old girl and another on the way, I'm concerned that our culture "tells" young girls that their worth is dependent on what other people think about how sexually attractive you are. But sports seems to be one way that women can feel good about their bodies without having to worry about what others think about how they look.

At any rate, this book has become one of my favs because it helps my daughter learn about the "true" meaning of the term "Princess" apart from the Disney meaning of the word. That is, she can define herself according to her standards rather than someone else's.

I love fairy tales, and "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" has always been one of my favorites. I read this book to my daughter and we both loved it. It's a twist on the traditional fairy tale; the princesses sneak away to play basketball, rather than to meet up with hunky princes. It's a major shot of girl power! They don't need to wait around for men to amuse them: they amuse themselves! Go, girls!

My daughter, however, was confused about the multicultural princesses. I explained about families being about love, not color of skin, and she seemed satisfied with that. Personally, I enjoyed the fact that the princesses were all drawn with their own "personalities" (if that can be shown in a picture) and weren't the cookie-cutter princess stereotype of blonde hair, blue eyes, size two...

The rhyme scheme has a few rhythmical flaws, but flows pretty well. The third time (!!) reading it, I did it as a rap, which my daughter really enjoyed.

All in all, a delightful read and a nice way to show girls that they can make their own destinies and enjoy whatever they want to enjoy.

This year my 7 year old discovered she now enjoys basketball and spends time working on her dribbling and shooting skills. So this book was GREAT to show that girls can enjoy the sport of basketball. It is also a great "modernization of the traditional Dancing Princesses story. Every year on my child's birthday, I write her a letter to summarize her year. I tucked this year's letter into this book and put it in her box. She will get 21 books and 21 letters when she turns 21, and this book will help her remember the year she got in the game and worked on her basketball skills.