Review - Princess Baby, Night-Night

Princess Baby, Night-Night
by Karen Katz
Date: 2009
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: library

Poor Princess Baby. It’s bedtime, but she isn’t sleepy in this adorable follow-up to the first Princess Baby book. After all, there is so much a princess baby needs to do. PJs need to be put on, toys need to be put away, the perfect book needs to be chosen, and her beloved subjects need to brush their teeth! It’s a very busy time in Princess Baby’s room. Young readers will want to climb into their own beds when our pint-sized heroine finally pulls up the covers and goes “night-night.”

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I'm really not the audience for this one, but I'd hesitate to read it to young children, too. It's all about Princess Baby (I hope that's a nickname and not the poor child's actual name) and her bedtime routine. She's told by her parents to do various tasks in preparation for going to bed. But she doesn't really do any of them. She performs the tasks on her stuffed animals, and then falls asleep on the floor.

The e-book version I read is really inconsistent. The book is written entirely in dialogue. In the beginning, the parents' voices are set off by italics. But at around the 2/3 mark, that goes by the wayside. I'm not sure why (although I suspect it's just a shoddy conversion).

Some of the stuff Princess Baby does kind of grosses me out. She "brushes" her stuffed animals' teeth, seemingly with real toothpaste. All I can imagine is toothpaste caked into all that fake fur. And then her parents ask her if she's had a drink. Again, she gives a drink to her stuffed animals. (Which is probably for the best. At least now she won't be up in an hour needing to pee.)

The illustrations may appeal to small children, but I found them too simple, a bit garish, gender stereotyped, and a little creepy. (I also shudder at the fact that Princess Baby's parents left her alone with two full tubes of toothpaste. Not only does she make a mess, but the amount of fluoride there is dangerous, should she decide to eat it!)

It looks like there are parts of the illustrations that are glittery in the physical copy. Everything about this book is so stereotypically girly, though, that it's going to have a limited audience.

Premise: 3/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 2/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.33 out of 5