Product Description

An out-of-work princess must prepare a feast fit for a prince.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #255689 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .33" h x 8.79" w x 11.31" l, .85 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The latest of Mary Jane Auch's (Bantam of the Opera) fairy-tale parodies finds Paulina the Princess competing against her peers for the hand of Prince Drupert, the sorry-looking son of overbearing Queen Zelda. Paulina knows the old pea-in-the-mattress trick ("That's so once-upon-a-time," she scoffs to herself) and is unintimidated by the other two finalists, a princess with a very long braid and another princess accompanied by seven little men. But the kitchen assignment comes close to defeating her until, in despair, she whips up a mess of tomatoes, cheese and garlic on some bread dough, wowing Queen Zelda. In a gratifying final twist, Paulina rejects the prince and opens her own successful business a pizza parlor, of course. Readers will delight in the sly references to other fairy tales and in the goofy visuals (e.g., with a sardonic grin, a Rapunzel-like princess uses her very long braid to trip Paulina). The illustrations, representing the wife-and-husband team's first picture-book collaboration, resemble those in Mary Jane Auch's previous works they are just as witty yet considerably more detailed. This sassy send-up seems likely to deliver a royal case of the giggles. Ages 4-8.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Mary Jane Auch and her husband Herm Auch are a husband and wife team of illustrators whose first picture book collaboration was The Princess and the Pizza. Mary Jane Auch is also known for her historical and humorous fiction for children and her hilarious poultry parody picture books. The Auchs live on a small farm near Rochester, New York.

Mary Jane Auch began her career in children's books by writing novels and has nine to her credit. Her most recent, "Out of Step," was described in School Library Journal as "humorous, realistic, and poignant." She maintains that she always wanted to illustrate children's books, but the ideas that came to her were for older children; that's why she began to write novels. Then in 1991, she had an idea about a chicken, and she thought it would make a good picture book. The result was "The Easter Egg Farm," followed now by "Peeping Beauty." Ms. Auch lives with her husband and two children on a farm near Rochester, New York.