The Princess and the Absolutely Not a Princess

Gr 2–4—When Princess Miranda Rose Lapointsetta's royal tutor decides to retire, she must head to school and join the class in 3B. Maude Brandywine Mayhew Kaye is also in 3B and has the luck, or misfortune, of being seated next to her fancy new classmate. The girls soon realize that they are too different to be friends and quickly become enemies. Princess Miranda hates nothing more than hardboiled eggs. Maude is very proud of the chickens she raises with her father and brother at her ramshackle treehouse. The rivalry escalates as the girls passive-aggressively try to tolerate sitting next to each other, and ultimately culminates with Miranda discovering unflattering pictures of herself in Maude's journal, which leads her to not invite Maude to her royal birthday party. At its core, this is a book about feeling different, making uninformed judgments about others, trying new things, and finding acceptance. Simple cartoon-style illustrations are a nice break from the text and add life to the characters. Advanced vocabulary and an overuse of umlauts may confuse and deter brand-new readers and English language learners.