Back of Book:
The castle is crawling with wayward alligators, and the clueless king doesn’t know how to fix it. Lila, Margaret, and Harriet have lots of ideas, but their father won’t listen! According to him, the Princesses should be focusing on proper pursuits like drawing, jewelry, and music. When the three girls start falling asleep during the day, the King sends the Prince to investigate … What he discovers is that the three princesses are gathering at night to use their knowledge of the six simple machines to invent an ingenious alligator removal contraption in their secret workshop.
My Review:
I received a copy of this picture book from Page Street Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
“Princess Can Fix It!” by Tracy Marchini is a wonderful STEM look on the classic story of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”. In this unique twist, the three princesses Margaret, Harriet, and Lila try to figure out the best way to get their alligators back in the mote. The king does not approve of his daughters working on these types of ideas, so the three princesses work all night to create their inventions. Meanwhile, their brother Prince Edward is on a mission of his own. Edward loves to sew but the King doesn’t believe that sewing is a proper price-like activity. With teamwork and determination, the four siblings finally solve the alligator problem and convince the king that they can all accomplish more than he realizes. I love that Tracy used scientific vocabulary words like an inclined plane, and wedge, to describe what the princesses were doing. The illustrations by Julia Christians are full of scientific detail that brings the contraptions to life. I think I will use this book to have my students think of ways that they could create their own alligator contraptions. A fantastic book that focuses on STEM, as well as gender stereotypes.
Ages 5 and up
32 Pages
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