Starred review from April 30, 2018
Yes, the princess drives a race car, and why not? This sizzling readaloud starts as the Fairy Godmother tells the Princess that she’s in last place with one lap to go. “She might as well give up!” the narrator threatens. But when readers get a look at the expression of grim determination behind the princess’s goggles, they’ll know all is not lost. As she roars off, a frog with a shiny suit and a shinier microphone provides a breathless account of her progress: “She passed Humpty Dumpty! She passed all the King’s Horses! She passed all the King’s Men!” Practically every major nursery rhyme character makes a cameo appearance: “She blew the doors off the Big Bad Wolf and smoked the Three Little Pigs.” Rocket-fueled panel artwork by Santat (After the Fall) gleams like carbon fiber. His rendering of Angleberger’s (the Origami Yoda series) inspired injection of sports-network energy into fairyland produces a shot of gleeful adrenaline whose only fault, like the best of things, is that it’s over too soon. Ages 5–7. Author’s agent: Caryn Wiseman, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House.