The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale & Dean Hale

The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale. A lovejoyreadalouds.com book review of the popular chapter book — (affiliate link)

Princess Magnolia was having hot chocolate and scones with Duchess Wigtower when her ring made a sound. Something was going on in Monster Land and only one person was qualified to help – The Princess in Black.

But can Princess Magnolia take care of the problem without Duchess Wigtower finding out about her superhero alter ego?

Length: 89 pages
Read-Aloud age: 4+

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LJR’s Thoughts on The Princess in Black

We’ve enjoyed reading this series by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale. (Be sure to read the notes below about our recommendation for reading the entire series). All three of our littles love reading these books over and over again.

Overall, they’re not bad. It has adventure and tea parties, which works well for my rough-and-tumble princesses who also enjoy getting dressed up. My little boy also enjoys them because they have fight scenes and monsters.

We’ve read books 1 – 8 (so more individual book reviews are coming) and they’re all pretty much like this. There is only one male character in the book so far and a whole lot of princesses. He’s a sweet, likable character and my little boy’s favorite character. Duff, the goat boy, is even inspired by the Princess in Black to become a superhero himself. If you have a little boy with big sisters, he may enjoy the books along with them.

Noteworthy for The Princess in Black

In our usual LJR fashion, we try to find anything that Christian families may want to know about ahead of time to address, skip, or dig deeper into. Take a look at what we found below. Our take on Discipleship Opportunities is at the bottom of the review.

Although this book is fine (and you’ll see books 2 – 8 are also), book 10 will release in April 2023 and has a prince in pink who has been “yearning for a chance to show off his special skills, with the help of some twinkle-twinkle and major glam.” Though I won’t make assumptions about the content, it is safe to say, given the climate of children’s publishing today, you should take precautions before reading it.
There is a Monster Land in the books; however, the illustrations of the monsters make them seem more silly than scary. Although the monsters do keep trying to eat Duff’s goats.
Duchess Wigtower snoops around Princess Magnolia’s castle but we are shown that it’s a bad thing.
Princess Magnolia sneaks off and keeps secrets/lies in order to protect her superhero identity.
The book has fight scenes where Princess Magnolia is fighting the monsters. They are mild and slap-sticky.

Discipleship Opportunities

Duchess Wigtower says everyone has secrets. This is a wonderful time to discuss all sorts of secrets. Good secrets, like surprises, and bad ones, including sins. In 1 John 1:8-10, the ESV translation says “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” Proverbs 28:13 and Psalm 38 (specifically verse 18) address the consequence of our secrets/sins as well.

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