This is a "based loosely on a true story" children's picture book which depicts the Greek Princess Alice (the late-mother of Prince Philip), and her choice to hide a Jewish family during WWII. Princess Alice used the fact that people underestimated her to her advantage - in the story, the emphasis is on the fact that Alice uses the fact that she is deaf in order to refuse to understand Nazi orders. The story focuses on the family of Haimaki Cohen, who was saved by the Princess as repayment for Haimaki's early help with King George. As the end of the story notes, Alice was recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations," by the Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem. The story itself is fairly simple, and while it might frighten very young children, it will probably be manageable for children eight or older. That said, the actual story of the Greek Jews during WWII is much more tragic than what Haimaki Cohen's family experienced.

I received this e-book ARC of The Brave Princess and Me through Net Galley from Second Story Press in exchange for a truthful review.

Part juvenile historical fiction/part biography of Princess Alice of Greece, mother of Prince Philip, and her actions to protect Rachel Cohen and her daughter Tilde Cohen by giving them refuge in her Athens home during the Nazi occupation. Princess Alice's deafness came into play in her dealings with the suspicious Gestapo.
The story is told from the point of view of Tilde.

The book is relatively short (around 30 pages) and is accompanied by colorful illustrations on each page. A short biography, with real-life photos, of Princess Alice supplements the story.

This was a wonderful story on how Prince Phillip's late mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg hid Greek Jewish ctitizens, who were escaping the Nazi regime without question because she was a kind and decent woman. She was willing to risk being found out, it was very dangerous back then because if anyone was found resisting Nazi policy by sheltering people, they would be sent to concentration camps and killed. Princess Alice was born deaf, but learned to lip read people so that she could understand what they were saying. Alice was married to Prince Andrew of Greece, and had 5 children with him: 4 daughters and 1 son who is Prince Phillip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband. When the monarchy of Greece got overthrown, the Greek royal family were forced into exile. In the 1930s, Alice was diagnosed with mental health issues and was put into a sanitarium by her family, against her will, where she was subjected to horrible treatments. Society wasn't kind nor helpful to the mentally ill back then. They locked them up in sanitariums and did all sorts of inhumane experiments that actually left the mentally ill even worse off than when they started. Even though Princess Alice and her husband didn't officially divorce, their marriage was effectively over, because Prince Andrew had affairs and so they lead separate lives. Alice's daughters married Nazi officials. Prince Phillip was being raised in England under his uncle, Admiral Louis Mountbatten. After her mental treatment, Princess Alice went back to Greece and devoted herself to charity work. She successfully managed to hide many Jewish refugees by using her hearing disability to its advantage by pretending that she couldn't hear the Nazi officers when they came to her residence and demanded to check if she was hiding anyone. That required a lot of courage. The Nazi officers fell for her tricks and left her alone. After the war, she became a nun and founded the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary. Alice was named the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial dedicated to victims of the Holocaust. The title was given to non-Jewish individuals who helped Jewish people escape the Holocaust.

Although this picture book says it is a work of fiction, there was a Princess Ann, and she did hide Jews form the Nazi's in Greece, which was occupied. She was deaf, but she could lipread quite well.

She was the mother of Prince Phillip (married to Queen Elizabeth), and really did hide Jews from the Nazis. This story is what it might have been like to be hidden, and have the Princess pretend not to understand, when the Nazi's came to call.

<img src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Screen-Shot-2019-04-11-at-11.10.08-PM.png" alt="The princess and me" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5082" />

<img src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Screen-Shot-2019-04-11-at-11.10.25-PM.png" alt="The Princess and Me" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5081" />

Very clever woman, and very lovely picture book.

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

*thank you to Netgalley and Second Story Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review*

4 stars.

Firstly, I need to say that the artwork in this book is beyond AMAZING!! I'd give that alone 6 stars! It's so realistic and so so well done that I have no real word to describe how much I loved these illustrations. This illustrator, Juliana Kolesova, sure can draw! While at first glance they appear dark and lacking of those bright colours that most childrens picture books have, but if you think about it for a moment, you will realise that it actually matches the story perfectly. This story is one that is set in a dark time so to have dark illustrations was the way to go. 

I didn't realise until the end of this book that Princess Alice is in fact the grandmother of Prince Charles, and the great-grandmother of Princes William and Harry. Alice was not only a kind soul but also a very smart one. It's a very heart felt thing to read stories like this one that took place during World War 2. To hear of kindness during that time has such a huge affect on me. I've read many aimed at adults and very few for children but I'd have to say that despite that, I do strongly believe that this one is one of the best. It's short but says so much and is a great read for sensitive people and children. It is only 1 story of that era but it is a strong one. Definitely recommended for both story and illustrations.