Rejected Princesses

August 1, 2016
Once upon a time, Porath, an animator for a little company called DreamWorks Animation, joked around with his work buddies about women who would never get their own princess moviesand with that, the Rejected Princesses blog was born. Like his blog, the purpose of the book is to shine a light on remarkable women of the past, regardless of whether they were remarkable for noble or horrifying reasons. More than 100 entries range from fairy tales such as the Norwegian Tatterhood, who rode a goat and fought off trolls with a wooden spoon, to historical figures like Stagecoach Mary Fields, an emancipated slave who became one of the first female U.S. postal carriers and famously fought off wolves to deliver the mail. Each entry includes a thoughtful illustration, often further explained via an Art Notes section. Porath's writing is highly entertaining but casual. (He writes, for example, that revolutionaries started the Mexican Revolution by telling President Diaz to stop being a jerk.) He lumps entries into three categories: green, yellow, or red. Moral, happy-ending-type stories are in the green category, at the beginning of the book. Stories with darker themes more appropriate to adults are in the red section, at the end. Otherwise, the entries are in no particular order, and there is no index, so this reference-y book is most suitable for browsingbut very appropriate for both reference and circulating collections at high-school and public libraries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)