This is a twist on the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale. It is light-hearted and humorous with a fun twist and happy ending. I especially like that this book ignores the "princess falling in love" tropes and that the girls are allowed to continue to participate in their beloved activity as the King and Queen accept their pastime. The illustrations are cute. I did feel like it was very wordy at times for a children's picture book.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

Twelve Terribly Active Princesses Who Were Not Exactly Dancing

by Michael Ann Hobbs

Twelve Terribly Active Princesses Who Were Not Exactly Dancing is a remake of the old fairy tale in which twelve princesses slip out every evening to dance the night away. The title got my attention and the idea was a good one. The effort unfortunately broke down in execution. The chapters are too wordy for a picture book for younger children and the interest just isn’t there for beginning chapter book readers. The reading level and number of words per chapter are also too high for those readers.

The illustrations are acceptable, but not outstanding. Two details I did enjoy are the method the princesses use to get to their nighttime world and the identity of the old woman who helps with the discovery of the princesses’ activities. I would recommend this book for young girls who are true baseball enthusiasts.

I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Xist Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Twelve Terribly Active Princesses who were not Exactly Dancing by Michael Ann Dobbs is a cheerful tale that reimagines the classic dancing princesses on a sandlot field instead of in a fairy ballroom.

You get twelve spunky and rambunctious girls sneaking out to play ball, a suspicious and increasingly frustrated set of royal parents, and a resolution. The story opens with the King trying to keep the girls in their bedroom at night. Then we move to the fellow who figures out what's going on. It's upbeat and full of energy.

This version has been tuned up to end on a happier note where no one is cursed or executed, the retired soldier gets to be the princess team's coach, and the royal parents are happy to let the girls play ball.

The drawings are simple but colorful, and they complement the tale nicely. While this is described as a chapter book or a read to there's a lot of narrative, so this isn't just a brief, punchy short story. If you like a little sporty girrrll power with your fractured fairy tales, this could be a nice choice.

I received this ARC from Xist Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

'Twelve Terribly Active Princesses Who Were Not Exactly Dancing' by Micahel Ann Dobbs with illustrations by Bree Paulsen is a more modern fairytale about princesses who have different ideas of how to spend their time.

When twelve princesses keep waking up with ruined shoes, their father the King is puzzled. After nights and nights of this, he is really perplexed. He decides to see if there is someone who can help solve the mystery. The man who figures it out can possibly marry one of the princesses. If he can't figure it out, he'll lose his head. A brave young man shows up, and with the help of a strange old woman, he is on the case.

It's a bit wordy for a picture book, but it does have pictures. If it's a young reader, the font seems a bit small and daunting compared to other books of this type. The illustrations are cute, but some pages had color behind the text which made it a bit hard to pick out (another possible hurdle for younger readers).

The story is cute and I liked what the princesses were really up to. I find it a bit unusual that 12 sisters, or siblings for that matter, would all want to participate in the exact same activity, but I can suspend that idea for the sake of a cute story.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Xist Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

The story was a fun read and my 6 year old really enjoyed it. As the reader, there were some parts that I found incredibly repetitive, such as listing all twelve princesses names over and over as well as some of the parts when the king keeps moving the princesses from room to room thinking it will get them to sleep more. I really liked the fact that the princesses weren’t sneaking out to dance with princes, but rather had found a sport that they loved to play as a team. It was also nice to have the soldier work hard to find the princesses, and himself, a happy ending. He realized how much pleasure the girls got out of playing baseball and he knew that it shouldn’t be taken away from them. An additional fun twist was the little old lady who helped the soldier turned out to be the girls’ grandmother and quite the little manipulator herself.

The book reads like an extra long picture book which makes it especially nice for the older child who still likes to listen to stories, but wants more plot.

I generally liked this book. There was a little too much text on the pages but the updated fairy tale was fun. The repetition of the mattress moving will delight children. And the fact that none of the princesses fell in love with their manager? Priceless!

Four stars
This book comes out April 4

If you have wondered what princesses would sneak off to do these days, then this retold fairy tale would be perfect.

The original story of the Twelve Dancing Princesses was that a their father, the king, could not figure out how they ruined their shoes every morning, after they were supposed to be in bed sleeping. It was because they were dancing their shoes to pieces.

Enter this version. The girls are playing baseball (not softball) and they are very good at it, disguised as boys. Problem is, of course, the dainty shoes they are given are not good for playing baseball in, and so they are ruined by morning. The king can't figure out it out, so asks for someone to solve the mystery and take one of his daughters in marriage.

And of course, someone takes up the task.

It is a cute retelling of the story, and a swift little book for early readers to either hear, or read along with. It is a slightly modern take that would probably make sense to kids today.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

A Cheerful Goof on the Dancing Princesses

This is a cheerful, if predictable, tale that reimagines the classic dancing princesses on a sandlot field instead of in a fairy ballroom. It would probably be most entertaining if the reader were familiar with the original, underlying tale, but I don't think that's actually necessary.

You still get twelve spunky and rambunctious girls sneaking out to play ball, a suspicious and increasingly frustrated set of royal parents, and a resolution. As in the original, the story opens with the King trying to keep the girls in their bedroom at night. Then we move to the fellow who figures out what's going on. It's upbeat and full of energy.

This version has been tuned up to end on a happier note. In the original the princesses are cursed and punished for deceiving their parents, investigators who fail are sentenced to death, and the retired soldier who solves the mystery gets to pick a princess as his bride. In this one, (SPOILER), no one is cursed or executed, the retired soldier gets to be the princess team's coach, and the royal parents are happy to let the girls play ball. I had no problem with dropping the grim part from the Grimm part, and preferred this goofier version.

The drawings are simple but colorful, and they complement the tale nicely. While this is described as a chapter book or a read to there's a lot of narrative, so this isn't just a brief, punchy short story. If you like a little sporty girrrll power with your fractured fairy tales, this could be a nice choice.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)