The Kite Princess

K-Gr 2–Princess Cinnamon Stitch does not like wearing fine clothes, riding through the country with the king and queen, or practicing deportment. One day she takes off her princess garments and escapes to the woods in overalls, where she does cartwheels, climbs trees, and dances with flea-covered cats. As she gets a thorough scrubbing back in the palace, Cinnamon is told, “Princesses don’t cartwheel/or clamber up trees!/They don’t get all slimy/and never get fleas!/They sing and they sew;/they don’t do as they please!” So the princess stitches a beautiful, multicolored kite and floats up into the endless blue sky with the birds. The king and queen look up at their daughter and hear her singing. They long for the same kind of freedom and escape to the sky on their own elaborately made kites. The lighthearted rhyming text is complemented by fanciful, jewel-tone illustrations full of intricate patterns. Instructions for making a kite are included. Pair this tale with Florence Parry Heide’s Princess Hyacinth (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated) (Random, 2009) for girls who can’t get enough princess stories.–Mary Jean Smith, formerly at Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN