Sunday, February 2, 2020

Review - The Runaway Princess (DNF)

The Runaway Princess
by Johan Troïanowski
Date: 2020
Publisher: Random House Graphic
Reading level: C
Book type: graphic novel
Pages: 272
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

This princess can't resist the lure of adventure, but her parents aren't quite on board in this fantastical graphic novel perfect for fans of Princess in Black and Phoebe and Her Unicorn!

Robin? Robin? Robin?! Where are you?

She couldn't have gone far. . . .

Princesses don't run away to have their own adventures. Right?

Princesses stay quietly and obediently at home. They would never want mermaids and swamps and pirates and getting kidnapped to be a part of their lives.

Not this princess!

Adventures await when Robin (bored of princess-ing all the time) embarks on the best adventure of her life--meeting friends along the way as she travels through the magical landscape of her country. But her parents aren't so pleased--and they're coming to find her and bring her back to the castle, no matter how she feels about it!

(synopsis from Goodreads)

DNF @ 19%

Perfect for fans of Phoebe and Her Unicorn? I think not. This is neither clever nor particularly entertaining. It's way too long, aimed at the wrong age group, and is so nonsensical (the queen freaking flies!) that it's hard to take seriously. The author obviously loves Lewis Carroll's work, and the homage to absurdity is clear. But if I'm reading a book where a princess supposedly upends social conventions and runs off to have her own adventure, I except more than the sexualizing of children and the standard "boy saves girl" trope.

It seemed to take me forever to get almost 1/5 of the way through this 272-page monster, which brings me to my main complaint. This is way too long for a children's graphic novel. And it's clearly aimed at children. There are all these little "interactive" bits where kids are supposed to solve puzzles or randomly shout a character's name as loud as they can (which I'm sure unsuspecting parents will appreciate). The age group that this feature will appeal to is not the same one that's ready to tackle books that are almost 300 pages long.

The final straw for me was when Robin was kidnapped. Her kidnappers are hapless and useless, but that's beside the point. She actually joins forces with them, and promotes their music group. Call it a bad case of Stockholm Syndrome. Call it an excuse for child trafficking. Whatever it is, it has no place in a children's book.

If you want interactive picture books, go read Don't Push the Button! by Bill Cotter. If you want graphic novels for kids that aren't insufferably trite, try Phoebe and Her Unicorn in Unicorn Theater by Dana Simpson or The Bad Guys series by Aaron Blabey.

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