School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-When Princess Paulina's father surrenders his kingship, the enterprising young lady sets off for a neighboring castle to marry Prince Drupert. Vying with other princesses, she sails through the traditional pea test, stays in the running after the glass-slipper fitting, but faces real difficulty in the third trial. Competing against two other princesses, Paulina finds herself left with some flour, yeast, water, tomatoes, cheese, and the threat of a beheading if she can't concoct a tempting feast. In haste and trepidation, she tosses the fruits of her culinary labor onto the hearth and-voil-wins the everlasting admiration of the prince and the overbearing queen. Paulina, however, has other plans; she spurns marriage and opens the highly successful Pizza Palace. But the happy-ever-after ending has a hitch; Drupert's mother is a pizzeria regular and is last seen sharing a slice with Paulina's father. This fractured fairy tale has a thoroughly modern sensibility, from the retired monarch pursuing a second career in the arts to the feisty heroine who runs her own business. The story moves briskly along with plenty of tongue-in-cheek references to traditional tales, and the exaggerated features in the illustrations are reflected in the hyperbole of the text. In a clever bit of foreshadowing, Paulina's oft-repeated "for Pete's sake" becomes the etymological basis for the word pizza. One bothersome note: Paulina's diamond pendant disappears from the illustrations with distracting regularity. A silly take on kids' favorite takeout.-Carol Ann Wilson, Westfield Memorial Library, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
"In this sassy send-up likely to deliver a royal case of the giggles," wrote PW, a princess competes against her peers for the hand of a prince and wins by whipping up a mess of tomatoes, cheese and garlic on some bread dough. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved