You Can't Eat a Princess!

PreS-Gr 1—When King Cupcake is abducted by aliens, Princess Spaghetti puts her chocolate-themed birthday party on hold to search for him. None of the royal soldiers is willing to take on a rescue mission, so the brave little girl launches the rocket herself, swirling through a galaxy of candy planets. When she reaches her destination, she finds King Cupcake—aka her daddy—enjoying a warm bath, clueless to the fact that he is really sitting in the aliens' cooking pot. "Get my father out of that pot right now!" commands Spaghetti with a voice of authority rivaling Sendak's Max quelling his Wild Things. And just like the Wild Things succumbing to the voice of a child, "the aliens knew they had met their match." Pastel hues, comical cartoon creatures, and zippy dialogue make this, on one level, a lighthearted story. But when young children beg to hear it again and again, it will undoubtedly be for the power conveyed by a shrewd little princess who can tame aliens and get them to eat chocolates out of her hand.—Gloria Koster, West School, New Canaan, CT